The Third's Fourth Pupil
by Kenkon15
Summary: After Naruto gets ambushed and beaten close to death, the Third Hokage decides to take the matter into his own hands. Not since Jiraiya, Tsunade and Orochimaru had he accepted another student, but the boy was an exception. Strong!Naruto, NaruHina.
1. Prologue

**The Third's Fourth Pupil**

* * *

**Prologue – Abandoned**

* * *

"Naruto, what's chakra made of?" Iruka asked the boy.

Naruto Uzumaki had been distracted for most of the class, gazing affectionately at Sakura Haruno, probably lost in daydreams about her. Many students chuckled and turned to face Naruto, who seemed to snap back to reality.

"What? How am I supposed to know that, Iruka-sensei?"

"I talked about that just five minutes ago."

Nearly everyone burst into laughter at the dead last, who frowned and did his best to ignore them. The only ones who hadn't made fun of Naruto had been Sasuke Uchiha, who was too busy being cold and emotionless, Shino Aburame, who no one had ever seen laugh, Shikamaru Nara, who was now awakening from his sleep and asking Choji Akimichi what was going on, and Hinata Hyuga, who had a slight blush on her face and looked at the blond with concern.

* * *

"Sakura-chan! Sakura-chan!" Naruto yelled, running towards Sakura with a huge grin on his face.

"What now, you baka?" The pink-haired girl asked, although she had a very good idea of what he wanted.

"I was just thinking… you want to come and have lunch with me?" He said, hopeful. Sakura only sighed at that.

"So I can get your food all over me while watching you pig out on it? No thanks." Ignoring the boy's sad and hurt look, she arrogantly turned her back on him and ran off to join Ino Yamanaka and a bunch of other fangirls, who were circled around Sasuke and fought for the right to feed him.

That day, Naruto had lunch alone, _again_, on his favourite swing, while Hinata spied on him from behind a tree. _She_ had always watched him have lunch.

* * *

"Very good! _Another_ bullseye!" Iruka said, writing the results on a piece of paper after Sasuke threw his last kunai. "That makes a perfect score… again! Congratulations!"

"Hn." The Uchiha mumbled, fangirls already gathering around him.

"Your turn, Naruto." The teacher instructed.

"Alright! Watch this, Sakura-chan!" He yelled as he stepped in front of the target, kunai at the ready.

His first throw was a total miss, as well as the second and the third, and most of the students laughed at him again. Angry, he got ready for a fourth one, moving his arm behind his head and launching the ninja knife with as much strength as he could. Which was probably a tad too much.

He lost his balance and let go of the weapon early. It flew straight towards Iruka, who dodged it right in time to have the sharp blade miss his right ear for a few inches.

The class froze, the laughter instantly stopped. That was not good.

"NARUTO!"

A very angry teacher grabbed Naruto by his collar and dragged him back to the Main Building for punishment, ignoring the boy's struggling, protests and several apologies.

While the rest of the children resumed their interrupted laughter, Hinata picked up the kunai Naruto had used, to make sure they'd be returned to him later.

* * *

"Sakura-chan! Hey, Sakura-chan!" The Academy had closed for the day, it was already dark and the students headed home. Naruto rushed towards his crush, who had just turned left into a shortcut alley with Sasuke, unsuccessfully attempting to start a conversation with him.

"What do you want this time, Naruto?" She asked.

"I was wondering if you'd like me to walk you home…"

Sakura thought about whether she should slap him or kick him for asking her that for the fifth time that week when she noticed she'd stopped walking and was losing Sasuke.

"No, Naruto, I don't, now leave me alone!" She graciously turned around and ran back to the Uchiha, who hadn't even noticed she'd stayed behind.

A few seconds went by.

"Sakura-chan?" Naruto repeated.

"I told you, I don't want you to walk me home, Naruto!"

"Sakura-chan… It's not that…" The boy whispered, so quietly she could hardly figure out what he'd said.

"Naruto, for the last time, I-" She was cut mid-sentence when she turned around and faced three masked, obviously adult shinobi, one of which, the one with the lion mask, held a kunai to Naruto's throat. They were dressed in a mixture of ninja and civilian clothes, and although their masks were similar, they were quite obviously not ANBU operatives.

Sasuke seemed to detect the three men's presences. His expression the exact same as when he was walking home, he took out a kunai of his own from his pocket and ran at full speed to confront his opponents. This seemed to amuse them. As soon as Sasuke was close enough, "Lion" kicked him in the chest with immense strength, causing him to fly onto Sakura, unconscious.

"You idiot!" Another of the men, one with an eagle mask, yelled. "You were specifically told not to hurt any other child! And what do you do? You go and kick _the Uchiha kid_! We're only here for the demon brat!"

While Sakura got Sasuke off of her, Naruto took advantage of the "Lion"'s distraction to break free of his grasp and deliver a swift kick to his most treasured area, which had him rolling on the ground screaming in pain.

"Why you…" "Eagle" said, punching the blond right I the nose before the latter could run. The masked nin was satisfied to hear a loud crack when he hit the Jinchuuriki.

Meanwhile, the third man, one with a cat mask, helped "Lion" up. The three adult shinobi gathered around Naruto, who was lying on the ground, and proceeded to kick him as much as they could, laughing hard as they did so, clearly enjoying themselves.

"Sakura-chan… help…" The young blond pleaded.

But the girl was unable to move a muscle. She was too afraid to. When "Lion" decided it was getting uninteresting to kick Naruto's back he moved on to the head, hitting his temple with deadly precision, causing Sakura to go even paler than she already was and to start sweating and shivering. Somehow, Naruto managed to cling to consciousness, silently begging for her to help him with his eyes, his blood spilling all over the pavement.

Then Sasuke, who had been lying against a wall, coughed, and blood ran down his chin. The girl's eyes widened in surprise and horror.

"Sasuke-kun!" She shouted, and without a second thought she grabbed Sasuke and carried him away, towards the hospital.

Naruto was now alone.

That is, if you didn't count the three thugs beating the life out of him.

Suddenly, as his brain started to shut down, he heard a high pitched scream, followed by "Naruto-kun!"

The men above him spoke, but he could only catch bits, such as "can't hurt another kid", "he's going to die anyway" and "Run!"

Between blinks he was able to see a blue-haired, pupiless girl kneeling next to him.

"Hi…na…ta?"

And then everything went black.

* * *

**End of the Prologue**

* * *

I've always wanted to do a Strong!Naruto story, and I think I'm ready for another try at a multi chapter fic… plus I want to try longer chapters this time… So there you go, a very short prologue, just to set the mood… I hope you enjoyed it.

Bye!


	2. The Hokage's Proposal

WOW! 33 reviews for ONE chapter? I wasn't expecting that much… So to all of those who reviewed, thank you! You were all awesome! After all of these reviews, I couldn't wait to write the next chapter. To all of you who made suggestions, even bigger thanks, and to those who pointed out plot holes and such, a huge thanks!

A special thanks (I can't get enough of thanking today, I guess) to OnGuard, who said that an attack in broad daylight near the Academy would be hard not to notice. I have edited the first chapter, and I'm sure you'll find it better now.

Also, the shinobi who attacked Naruto were not ANBU. Yes, they had similar masks, but they were not ANBU. I know I should've explained that better and it should be much clearer by now.

There were also some reviewers who said that I had some grammar mistakes. Well, feel free to point them out so I can correct them! I hope to improve my writing with all the help I am getting for you. Plus, if any grammar specialist wants to Beta-read the story I'd be very grateful.

Anyway, I know I said I'd try to make longer chapters from now on, and I know this is certainly NOT a long chapter, but I wanted to stop before the timeskip. Enough of this now, and on with the chapter!

* * *

**Arc One: The New Naruto**

* * *

**Chapter 1 – The Hokage's Proposal**

* * *

"…to…"

Who was that?

"…ruto…"

Were they calling for him?

"Naruto…"

Naruto opened his eyes. He was lying on a bed in what he supposed to be the hospital. He had seen a lot of that place in the past and had no doubt he'd see much more of it in the future. Next to him stood a very familiar person.

"Ojii-san?" The blond boy mumbled.

"Naruto… you're finally awake… do you feel alright?" The Third Hokage asked, deeply concerned about the child he had come to see as a grandson.

"Not really… all of my body hurts…" Naruto answered, touching a few sore spots on his left arm. "Ouch…"

"Don't move too much, you need to rest." Hiruzen said, ruffling the young Jinchuuriki's spiky hair. "We need to talk though. Naruto, do you… do you remember anything about what happened yesterday?"

"Yesterday? How long have I been asleep?"

"Nearly twenty-four hours. The doctors were extremely surprised by this… they said you wouldn't wake up for at least three more days. They were very worried about you, you know… One of them told me that you arrived here with injuries that would be lethal for an adult." _"I guess whoever attacked him didn't take the Kyuubi's regenerative powers into account…" _The Sandaime thought.

"Well…" Naruto closed his eyes and frowned, trying to recall. "I _do_ remember something… I was walking with Sasuke and Sakura-chan when three masked men surprised me and-"

"Were they ANBU? What were their masks like?"

"Let me think… one of them had a lion mask…" Naruto then paused for a few seconds. "The other ones were an eagle and a cat, I think. I'm pretty sure they weren't ANBU though…" Sarutobi nodded and signaled for him to go on. "Anyway, one of them held a kunai against my throat. Sasuke saw them and tried to fight them but he got knocked out by a kick to his chest. One of them got angry because of that. He said they were only there for some "demon brat"… who's that?" The Third shrugged. "But they must've thought it would be fun to mess with me, 'cause after I tried to break free they started beating me up." He paused again. This was where his memories started to get hazy. "I think… I remember asking Sakura-chan for help… but… she carried Sasuke away… and that's it."

"You don't remember anything else?" The Hokage inquired.

"Not really. I guess Sakura-chan must've dropped off Sasuke here and went back to get me, uh?" Naruto said, a silly, happy grin on his face. "Are they alright?"

"_Poor boy… He's gone through so much already…" _Hiruzen sighed. "Sakura Haruno and Sasuke Uchiha checked in yesterday, at 20:37. Sakura had no injuries whatsoever and left after a quick safety check-up. Sasuke took a nasty hit, though. Nothing broken, but the doctors had to keep him overnight. He's still unconscious, but should be waking up soon." He informed. "They're both fine though. However, what you guessed wasn't what happened."

"Uh?" Naruto was confused. "She didn't go back for me?" He asked, slapping his forehead immediately after. "Of course! I'm such an idiot! There were bad guys there… she must've told the medic-nins about me and _they_ went to get me."

"She didn't say anything about you, Naruto. She was only concerned about Sasuke. You were brought here by none other than Hinata Hyuuga."

"Hinata?" Now that the old man talked about it, he _did_ remember seeing her there, just before he'd passed out. "Wait… does that mean that…" After a few seconds of pondering, a tear ran down his face. "Sakura-chan left me to die?"

The Hokage bit his lip and went on. "Hinata scared off the three shinobi that attacked you and carried you here on her own right in time for the doctors to save you. Even though you heal faster than most, a minute later and you'd be dead by now. You owe her your life, Naruto." He pointed to a vase of flowers on a table on the other side of Naruto's bed. "She was also the one who sent you those. I can tell that she really cares about you."

But Naruto didn't catch the Sandaime's last words. He was looking at his lap, his eyes wide and teary, mumbling "Sakura-chan left me to die…"

Sarutobi decided that this was a good time for him to take his leave, but not without adding a few more words:

"At this healing rate, you should be out of here by Thursday morning. You don't have to attend to the Academy that day. Take the morning for yourself, but come to see me in my office at 1 p.m. sharp. We have very serious matters to discuss. Please try not to be late."

* * *

For the following couple of days, Naruto grew tired of the hospital and its disgusting food. Apart from the Hokage, no one had come to visit him, so he spent most of his time alone, with nothing to do except for thinking.

And Naruto wasn't a big fan of thinking.

What else was he to do, though?

So he thought. He thought about Sakura, who had abandoned him, Sasuke, who had surprisingly tried to save him, Hinata, who had actually saved him, those three ninja and the reason why the villagers hated him so much and what the old man could possibly want from him.

He thought uncharacteristically long and hard.

And he came to a few conclusions.

* * *

Finally, Thursday came. Naruto was happily let out of the hospital at 11:30. He still had an hour and a half until the meeting with the Hokage and he didn't feel like having lunch yet… but he knew exactly what to do with that time.

Academy students always had a 2 hour lunch break at 11:45, so Naruto had exactly fifteen minutes which he didn't want to go to waste. He quickly ran through the village to one of the shops which had never overcharged or refused to sell to the young Jinchuuriki: the Yamanaka Flower Shop. Not that he'd had a lot of need for flowers in the past…

A bell rang as Naruto pushed the door and entered. He supposed the lady behind the counter was Ino's mother.

"Hello there! What can I do for you?" She kindly asked.

The boy went straight to the point. "Are you Ino's mom?" He unceremoniously (and quite rudely) said.

However, the woman didn't seem to mind. "Yes I am, you can call me Kayuke. And you must be…" She examined the other blond, His whisker marks gave him away almost immediately. He was the Kyuubi container. "Naruto, is that right?"

"Yeah, how did you know?"

"Uh… uh, Ino has talked about you…" Kayuke explained. And it wasn't exactly a lie. Ino _had_ mentioned the boy once or twice, and from what she'd said it was clear that she didn't have a high opinion of him.

"Ino talks about me?" Naruto seemed surprised. "Des she say nice things?"

"Uh, yes, of course!" The flower shop owner said with a fake, wide smile, patting the boy on the head. "Now, what brings you here?" She asked before Naruto had the chance to continue.

"I want some flowers for this girl I know!"

Kayuke raised an eyebrow. It was probably Sakura. Ino had also told her about his crush on the pinkette, and the older Yamanaka knew that if Naruto were to show up with flowers for the Haruno, the latter would most likely beat him up.

"Are they for Sakura?" It was best to make sure, though.

"What? No! They're not!"

Now she was really curious, but decided not to press the subject. "Alright then, which do you want?"

"I want some pretty ones!"

The Yamanaka woman chuckled. "All flowers are pretty, Naruto. Let me help you with your decision. Do you have any particular meaning in mind?"

"Wha-?"

"Flowers have meanings, Naruto, didn't you know?" The hilarious confused look on the boy's face was good enough of an answer. "For example…" Kayuke pointed to some red roses on the counter. "A single red rose means love… I suppose those aren't the ones you want." The Jinchuuriki shook his head. "Then you have dark pink ones…"

"That's it!" The younger blond suddenly yelled when he caught sight of the little cardboard sign next to the flowers, startling Ino's mother. "I'm sorry, but… those are the ones I need! Dark pink roses!"

"Those mean gratitude. Are you grateful to this girl, Naruto?"

"I am. Enormously grateful, so I'll take as many as I can afford with this money." He dumped the contents of his toad wallet on the counter.

"Very well. I'll throw in a few bluebells and white bellflowers, alright? They all mean gratitude." Naruto nodded and she started picking the flowers. The boy was surely not ungrateful… Maybe Ino had exaggerated a bit about him.

* * *

About two minutes later Naruto left the shop with twenty dark pink roses, as well as some bluebells and bellflowers, on his hand. It was 11:50. He'd be in time with no problem at all.

Naruto got to the Academy three minutes later. It would be hard finding his target amongst so many children, so he immediately started looking.

He found her ten minutes later, sitting against a tree, away from everyone, a lunchbox on her lap.

Naruto frowned. He had had no idea that Hinata, just like him, ate lunch all by herself.

"Hinata! Hey, Hinata!" The Hyuuga girl, who had been looking distractedly at the ground, quickly raised her head, eyes widened and blushing. "Can I… sit down next to you?" The heiress only blushed harder, her mouth slightly ajar now. With no need for an answer, Naruto did exactly what he'd asked to, keeping the roses hidden behind his back as well as he could at all times. He couldn't help but to think that for someone who possessed one of the legendary doujutsu, Hinata was particularly unobservant.

In the future he'd be proven wrong.

"S-so you're out o-of t-the hospital a-already?" Hinata forced herself to ask.

"Uh? Yeah, I'm much better now!" Naruto answered with a huge vulpine grin she couldn't help but to smile at. "Which brings me back to the reason I'm here. When I woke up, I remembered little of what had happened, but ojii-san told me you saved me. Is that true?" The shy girl nodded. "I thought so." The boy put on a serious face that Hinata had never seen before and revealed the flowers he had been hiding. "These are for you. Thank you so much, Hinata…-chan."

That was too much for the poor Hyuuga. Naruto was sitting right next to her, had given her flowers and had called her Hinata-chan. So red that she'd probably be able to glow in the dark, she closed her eyes and fainted.

Only to be awakened by said boy, who had dumped a glass of water on her head.

"I'm sorry, Hinata-chan! I just-" The blond started, but the shy girl shook her head, indicating it was alright.

And there it was again! The "chan" suffix! Hinata still couldn't believe that was happening to herself. It was just too good to be true!

"Here." The Jinchuuriki handed the heiress the flowers. "Dark pink roses symbolize gratitude, you know?"

She quietly took them in her hands and thanked her crush for the gift.

"D-do you w-want t-to have l-lunch with m-me, N-Naruto-kun?" The words suddenly escaped her mouth and there had been nothing she could've done about it. Unable to look him in the eyes, she faced her flowers instead while waiting for an answer.

"Thanks, Hinata-chan, but I'm going to have lunch at Ichiraku's and…" Only then did he remember that he had spent all of his money on the roses for the girl, who seemed to realize that as well, and on top of all that, his stomach had picked the exact time to loudly complain.

After delicately putting her flowers on the ground, she opened her lunchbox to reveal several types of sushi and rice balls.

"Wow!" The blond shouted. "That looks amazing! Did your mother make this?"

"M-my m-mother died when I was f-four… I m-made this m-myself…"

"Oh… I'm sorry…" Naruto's stomach grumbled again.

"It's alright. A-anyway, I m-made too m-much f-food and there's n-no way I c-can eat all of this a-alone… we c-can share it if y-you want t-to…" Hinata stuttered.

The blond boy was in a bit of a dilemma. On the one hand, he didn't want to bother the Hyuuga heiress any longer. On the other hand, the food looked really, really good… and he was really, really hungry… In the end his stomach won the battle and after a quick "Itadakimasu" he took a piece of shrimp sushi from the small box.

"Now let's see if this tastes as good as it looks!" He said, taking a bite. He chewed for a few seconds, purposely hiding his emotions to worry Hinata.

"S-so?" She nervously asked.

Naruto's eyes widened and he grinned yet again. "It tastes even better!" The blond yelled, making Hinata blush even more… again.

That said, he could finally dig in.

They kept silent throughout most of the meal, and when someone spoke it was usually Naruto, either congratulating the girl on her cooking or telling her an exciting (and very exaggerated) story about how he had escaped from a huge wild boar in the woods.

Between bites, Naruto happened to take a casual look at the clock on the Main Building.

"Five to One?" He shouted so loudly he scared the nearby birds away. "I'm almost late for the meeting with ojii-san!" He got up in the blink of an eye, grabbed two rice balls, said goodbye to Hinata and ran to the Hokage Tower as fast as he could, leaving the girl alone with her thoughts.

Thoughts that involved lunch with a certain someone, flowers given to her by that certain someone and a certain suffix that that someone had used.

Now she could finally faint in peace.

* * *

"_13:01" _The Hokage thought. At that exact moment the door opened and a knuckleheaded, hyperactive kid burst into the room.

"Ojii-san! Sorry I'm late!" He yelled, tackling the startled Fire Shadow.

"No problem, Naruto. Now if you let go of me and sit down, we can get straight to the point." The blond boy did as he was told. "Very well. Your dream is to become the Hokage, am I correct?"

"Yeah!" Naruto flashed the old man his trademark grin and gave him the thumbs up. "And I'm gonna make it, believe it!"

The Third chuckled at the boy's reply. "Yes, I am sure you will. And I've decided to help you with it. After that… incident, the other day, I came to the conclusion that you need to learn how to properly defend yourself." He clapped his hands twice. "You may reveal yourselves."

Instantly, four ANBU members appeared in poofs of smoke right in the middle of the room.

"The Academy was never meant to teach children how to fight." Sarutobi continued. "It's meant to teach them the basics of the shinobi way. Children only learn to how to fight seriously when they graduate and are assigned to a jounin sensei. Unfortunately, you can't afford to wait that long, as it will still be about three years before you're even _allowed_ to take the genin exam. So I've got a proposal for you: these ANBU operatives are some of my most trusted and loyal men. They'd never do anything to hurt you. Naruto, I want you to train under those shinobi for two years, in order to grow stronger. And if you successfully complete your training… I will take you as a pupil myself."

Hiruzen had expected an outburst from the kid. A yell, maybe some jumping around excitedly. But the blond was uncharacteristically quiet.

"So what you're saying is that I have to get training from four elite ANBU, then from the Hokage himself?" He asked.

The Sandaime nodded. "Only if you want to."

"Are you insane, old man? Of course I want to!" Naruto shouted. "If I get training from you I'll definitely be Hokage!"

Said old man laughed at the boy's antics and even some of the ANBU couldn't suppress some chuckles.

"I'm glad you're so excited about your training, Naruto. However, they will probably get very serious with you and-"

"That's not a problem, ojii-san! No matter what they throw at me, I'll never give up, I promise! And I always keep my promises! That's my nindo, my ninja way!"

"Very well then. Let me introduce your new senseis to you. This," The Third pointed at a tall, muscled man with a mane of brown, spiky hair and a lion mask. "Is Lion. He will work on your taijutsu and weapons training." Lion gave Naruto the thumbs up and the latter could've swore he'd seen a smile behind the mask. "Then you have Wolf." Wolf was an elegant woman with shoulder-long, blue straight hair. "She'll teach you about genjutsu. Next is Owl." Owl waved to the boy. She was also a woman, with waist-long blond hair. Fortunately she hadn't noticed that it'd taken him one whole minute to take his eyes off of her curves. "She'll focus on the more _theoretical_ part of your education. Finally, we have Hare." Hare was a man, shorter than Lion but just as bulky, with short, messy black hair that made him look like he'd just woken up. "As you may have guessed, Hare will teach you ninjutsu and chakra control."

The Jinchuuriki nodded his understanding and Sarutobi dismissed the ANBU.

"Tomorrow is the final day of classes for this year, correct?" The Hokage asked. Without waiting for an answer, he proceeded: "Obviously, you won't be able to attend to the Academy while training with your new senseis, so I've arranged for you to be allowed to miss about two years of it. Also, you'll attend to tomorrow's class until lunchtime so you can say goodbye to Iruka and all of your friends. Understood?"

Naruto nodded sadly. He didn't really have any friends. Well, maybe except for Hinata…

"That's all for now, Naruto. Now go home or something, and see if you get some good rest. You are to meet Lion, Hare, Owl and Wolf at Training Ground 15 at 13:30, after lunch, and being tired won't exactly help you."

The boy nodded and left.

* * *

That day, Sakura Haruno had gotten to the Academy early, as usual, in order to get the seat next to Sasuke.

And as usual, Naruto had gotten there late.

As the blond boy entered the room, a feeling of dread washed all over the pinkette.

There was an empty seat right next to her!

"_Calm down, Sakura, calm down!" _She thought. _"Naruto's talking to Iruka-sensei, so you've got time to think…"_

The Jinchuuriki had finished his talk with Iruka and was now climbing up the stairs, getting nearer and nearer to her.

"Seat's taken!" Sakura yelled as he got there, putting her hands over the vacant seat so he couldn't sit down.

Naruto just walked right past, not even acknowledging her. That was strange. Usually he'd beg to sit down next to her, and although she was relieved, she couldn't help but to feel confused as well.

The Kyuubi container walked all the way to the end of the room, where Hinata Hyuuga sat alone, like she did almost always.

All of the other students watched in awe as the dead-last, ignoring Sakura's stare, asked the shy girl if he could sit down next to her, request to which she nervously agreed, redder than she'd ever been.

"What? What are you looking at?" He shouted as he noticed all the strange looks he was being given. Left from him, Hinata sunk into her seat, extremely embarrassed.

"Ahem! May we begin the class?" Iruka said after a few more seconds. He too had been astonished at Naruto's behavior, not to mention happy that the blond had found a new friend. He needed as many of them as he could get, and there was no better person to start with than the Hyuuga heiress. "Today's lesson will be on Konoha clans and their bloodline limits.

Moans echoed all over the classroom as the students opened their textbooks on the page their teacher indicated.

"Konoha, just like the other four major hidden villages, has a big number of clans and bloodlines…"

"Hum… Hinata-chan…" Naruto whispered.

The girl reluctantly turned to face him and, while disapproving of talking during class, mouthed a "Y-yes?"

"I… I want to ask you something…" He said, before quickly adding "If that's alright…" He was more nervous than Hinata had ever seen him. Worried, she now gave him her full, undivided attention.

"W-what is it, N-Naruto-kun?"

"Um…" The boy shot Iruka a few glances, to which the chunin replied with a "do-you-really-have-to-do-that-now-we-will-have-a-break-in-just-half-an-hour-you-know" look, nodding for the blond to continue nevertheless. "Hinata-chan, I was… wondering. Are we… are we friends? I mean," Naruto hurriedly corrected. "I'll be your friend… if you want to, of course, but… will you be mine? I guess what I want to say is that I'd really like having you as a friend… but it's alright if you don't want to, I-"

Then, unexpected by everyone, even herself, Hinata launched herself forward without any kind of hesitation, temporarily forgetting she was in a classroom, in the middle of the lesson, embracing the astonished blond and squeezing him as strongly as she possibly could.

By then, every student had turned around to watch. If Naruto completely ignoring Sakura had been surprising, Hinata, the eternally shy girl, hugging her crush right in the middle of one of Iruka's lectures had been surreal. Even Sasuke and Shikamaru had abandoned their cool/lazy expressions, and stared at their classmates with pure unbelief on their faces. Iruka pinched himself. But the most surprised of them all was doubtlessly Sakura, whose mouth was as opened as it could be, an irrefutable invitation to any mosquito passing by.

"Hinata… chan… you're… crushing… me…" Naruto managed to let out.

As if suddenly realizing what she was actually doing, Hinata instantly released him, allowing the boy to breathe again.

"So… I'll take that as a "yes"." The Jinchuuriki said.

The Hyuuga, who was blushing harder by the second, somehow managed to pull herself together and nod.

"Awesome!" Naruto shouted. "You know, apart from ojii-san and Iruka-sensei, you are my first real friend! I think I-" A short pause. "Iruka-sensei, I think Hinata-chan just fainted!"

* * *

So far Naruto's day had been a mixture of good and bad.

On the one hand, he'd gotten his first friend his age! Someone who he could perhaps play with (if she didn't keep fainting all the time) and was actually kind to him, unlike most of the people he knew.

On the other hand, he was late for the meeting with his senseis because he'd been waiting for Hinata to wake up… with no luck at all.

So he'd just gotten a friend and he hadn't been able to tell her that he wouldn't be able to see her again for about two years. His first concern was the Hokage: he had specifically told Naruto to explain to his friends what was happening. Would he be too mad? And how about Hinata? She'd probably hate him when he came back…

Well, it had been great to have her as a friend… even if it was just for one day.

"It's about time, gaki!"

Naruto hadn't even noticed he'd already gotten to Training Ground 15. Lion grabbed him by the collar and dragged him all the way to the other ANBU.

"You're ten minutes late." Owl stated. "I guess punctuality is something we'll have to talk about on our lessons."

The boy's only answer was to cross his arms over his chest and frown.

Lion sighed. "Alright gaki, before we get to our _actual_ training spot, listen up:" He said. "For the next two years you'll train there, eat there, sleep there, live there, as well as us. You won't be allowed to leave and will get constant training from early in the morning to late in the evening, and we all expect you to keep up with it, got it?" Naruto nodded, what looked like a mix of fear, anxiety and excitement in his eyes, and the taller ANBU went on. "As you already know, I'll be your taijutsu and ninja weapons instructor. You will call me Lion-_sensei_. The same goes for my colleagues."

Then Hare cut in: "Your schedule will be as follows: you'll wake up at 7:50 sharp every day, eat breakfast (you've got ten minutes to do so), do stretches for another ten minutes and have genjutsu training with Wolf for two hours, from 8:10 to 10:10. After a twenty-minute break Lion will take over for your taijutsu and weapons training, which will also last for two hours, from 10:30 to 12:30. Then you'll have one hour and a half worth of lunchtime and after that, a two hour class with Owl, from 14:00 to 16:00. Another twenty-minute break and then ninjutsu and chakra control with me for the usual two hours, from 16:20 to 18:20."

"We'll then give you double the normal time to rest, forty minutes, before an hour-long session of sparring with one of us so we can see if you learned anything. You'll have dinner at 20:00 and you'll go to bed as soon as you finish it so you can get a good night's sleep for the next day." Owl explained. "Got it?"

Although it was maybe a little too much information for Naruto to take in at once, he nodded, knowing he'd eventually grow used to his schedule.

"There are some more things you should know:" Wolf said. "Number one: punctuality is of the essence. If you, for example, oversleep, you'll get punished with a whole day of push-ups, jogging, and things like that." She was pleased to hear Naruto gulp. "Number two: This is _not_, and I repeat, _is not_, a tough schedule. ANBU training is a tough schedule, not this, so we expect you to keep up with it. Our objective is that by the time we finish you're already low chunin or higher. Number three: From now on, everything you're taught, everything you see, hear or do is top secret and if you _ever_ tell it to anyone without ours or the Hokage's permission there will be _severe_ consequences."

The four ANBU then gave the info a few moments to sink in.

"Great! Let's get started then!" The blond kid excitedly yelled, pumping his fist into the air.

"Whoa, slow down there, gaki!" Lion told him between chuckles. He'd never seen someone so enthusiastic about training. "All we're going to do today are a few tests. You know, so we know how skilled you already are!" He explained. "We're not going to do them here, though."

"Where to, then?" The Kyuubi Jinchuuriki asked.

"Naruto-kun… have you ever heard about Training Ground 0?" Owl replied. The boy answered by shaking his head.

"It's a secret Training Ground for very important and higher level ninja and some of the Hokage's elite bodyguards, like us." Hare said. "It's bigger than ten of these regular training grounds combined and has got all sorts of equipment, weapons and so for the shinobi who use it to take and train. Of course there's also a small house for us to sleep in."

"Despite it being originally built in the middle of the woods, some parts of it have been modified into various terrain types so you can also get used to fighting in the desert or the plains, for example. What we call the "Elemental Library" is located there, too. It's a huge library with hundreds of scrolls, most of them being elemental ninjutsu ones, although there's also plenty of non-elemental ninjutsu, taijutsu, genjutsu, etc." Wolf added.

"It's concealed by a genjutsu of titanic proportions so that people that don't meet those previous requirements can't get in. It has existed since the time of the First Hokage and it's one of the village's better guarded secrets, one that we managed to keep that way from even the other Hidden Villages for all this time. Actually, it's such a well-kept secret that, back when the Nidaime was in charge, a special vault was created inside the Training Ground and throughout all of these years, most of the legendary weapons, armors and other items Konoha has managed to get its hands on have been stored there." Noticing the excitement in the boy's eyes, Owl quickly continued. "I doubt you'll be allowed to use any of them though. We might, however, take some classes to study them, Naruto-kun."

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot…" Lion suddenly shouted. This next piece of information would have the boy jump up and down like a little girl, as if he wasn't already, and beg them to teach him. "It's also known as… The Hokage Training Zone."

At that precise moment, Naruto yelled louder than he'd ever yelled before: "YATTA!"

* * *

"Alright then, let's get this over with." Lion ordered. The four ANBU sat on the ground around a campfire to speak. Naruto had finally fallen asleep two minutes before. "Wolf, your report. How's the boy's genjutsu?"

"Well," The blue-haired ANBU replied. "To put it simply, he sucks at it. His genjutsu is horrible: he couldn't manage to break free of the easiest D-rank illusion I could think of, let alone use it. I have a lot of work ahead of me…" She finished with a sigh.

"Very well. Hare?" Lion inquired.

"Naruto shows a natural aptitude for ninjutsu, ridiculous chakra reserves for someone his age, and I'm sure he'll even create a lot of powerful ones in the future. There is a problem, though: his chakra control is unbelievably bad, and that prevents him from learning the bunshin jutsu and the replacement. The only ninjutsu he can do are the henge and… uh…" Hare hesitated, seemingly embarrassed. "Yeah, that's it, the henge…" Never for as long as he lived would he admit to have been knocked out by Naruto when the boy pulled a Sexy Jutsu on him.

Lion looked suspicious, but let it slip. "Owl?"

"Naruto-kun shows eagerness to learn and a lot of enthusiasm towards subjects new to him, but he gets bored very easily and quickly and he's got severe concentration problems, but I believe I can get him over that. He's also a bit of a troublemaker. He didn't dare to be disrespectful to me, but he enjoys pulling pranks and such. However, I think I can solve that too. Overall, he's your average, easily distracted student."

She told her colleagues.

"That just leaves me then." Lion said. "His taijutsu is average, just what you'd expect from someone with two years of Academy training, as well as his weapon skills. And that's it. Now, we should all go get some rest. If the gaki's anything as the Hokage told me, it's not just you who's having two long years ahead of, Wolf."

* * *

**End of Chapter 1**

* * *

It was about time I finished… turned out longer than I expected it to. Expect the two and a half years timeskip next chapter!

Now, if everyone who has reviewed the first chapter reviews this one as well, I'll be very _very _happy!


	3. Results of Training

Alright! 40+ reviews for the second chapter! Keep this up and I'll have more than 100 by this chapter! Thank you, all of those who reviewed!

Also, sorry that I took so long with the update. As an excuse (a REAL one), I wrecked my arm during judo practice and couldn't write anything during the weekend. Also, I had to study hard for my Math, Physics and Biology exams. Well, as hard as a lazy bum like me can, anyway.

**Some important things now: There's a new poll in my profile, concerning the Wave Arc, specifically Haku and Zabuza's lives. Take a time to vote if you're interested. I'm also looking for a beta reader who's considerably fast and a master of grammar. Finally, ninja grades go from F to S. Getting an S does not mean that a person is S-rank. S is only a better mark than A.**

A special shout-out to Tobi'sgoodgirllovesSasuSaku, who pointed out a major plot hole concerning ages and Academy years and such...

On with the fanfiction, now:

* * *

**Arc One: The New Naruto**

* * *

**Chapter 2: Results of Training**

* * *

Naruto dashed through the woods, a half-eaten apple on his left hand.

"Damn Wolf-sensei… if she hadn't given me such a hard genjutsu to break I would've completed the exam sooner and I wouldn't have arrived for Lion-sensei's test late… And if Lion-sensei didn't insist on finishing all of the exercises I wouldn't have had to lunch in a hurry and I wouldn't be late for Owl-sensei's test right now!"

He got to a clearing with a large wooden house on the middle and jumped down.

It had been almost two exact years since Naruto started his training under the four elite ANBU and the time to return to the village and the Academy was getting nearer. He just had to pass the final exams and then he would have his comeback!

He'd certainly changed during all that time, both on the outside and on the inside. He was taller, of course, and also more muscled, but apart from that, there were no more significant changes to his appearance. His hair was still blond and just as spiky, he still wore an orange jumpsuit and his grins and smiles remained precisely the same.

Throughout those two years he'd also matured (Not much, though. Remember, it's Naruto we're talking about here.) and grown intellectually.

Plus he was much more powerful now, but he'd only know exactly how much after his senseis' final exams. Talking about which, he was currently late for one.

He kicked the door open to find Owl standing by a desk with some pieces of paper on.

"You're late, Naruto-kun." She scolded. Owl was the only one who called Naruto "Naruto-kun". Wolf didn't add any suffix and Lion and Hare just called him "gaki" or "brat". Sometimes he even wondered if they knew his name.

"Tell me about it…" He whispered. The blonde ANBU was probably the kindest and friendliest of them all, but you _did not_ want to get that woman angry. The boy still had nightmares about some of the detentions she had put him through. "So is this my test?" He asked, pointing at the papers.

"Part of it, yes." She then opened a handbag she'd brought and dumped its contents on the wooden piece of furniture. "And here's the rest."

"WHAT? Owl-sensei, there have got to be at least fifty pieces of paper here!" He then picked one of them up and examined it. "Both sides? No fair!"

"Thirty-nine, to be exact." Owl corrected. "You've got two hours. No pressure."

* * *

"_Well, the test didn't go so badly after all." _Naruto thought as he headed towards the clearing where he was supposed to meet Hare for the final exam. _"I mean, there was no way Owl-sensei expected me to do all of it. And 78 questions out of 106 is pretty good for two hours… Plus there were some really tough questions… I mean, _"Write a small text in which you relate Kirigakure's nickname, 'The Bloody Mist' with Shukaku, the Ichibi no Tanuki's attack on Sunagakure, mentioning the Nidaime Tsuchikage of Iwagakure; Hanzo of the Salamander, leader of Amegakure; the Second Great Ninja War; Konohagakure's Hidden Tree crisis and Kumogakure's attempts to steal the Byakugan."_? How the hell was I supposed to know that?"_

Now all that was left was ninjutsu and chakra control exam, and if he did well then and had done well with the other, he'd be allowed out of the Hokage Training Zone, back to the Academy, and the Third Hokage himself would take him as a student!

He really missed the village. The ANBU had kept true to their word: He hadn't been out of Training Ground Zero since his training had started. He missed his small, lonely apartment, he missed the Academy, Iruka, his class, Hinata, and Ichiraku's. Oh, how he missed Ichiraku's!

And if he passed his exams he'd be back to all that the following day!

"Hey gaki, I'm glad you're on time."

Naruto hadn't even noticed when he stepped onto the clearing.

"So, ready for your final exam, brat?" Hare asked.

"Hai, Hare-sensei!"

"Very well. Here's what you have to do…"

* * *

The four ANBU spent the time they'd usually use for sparring pondering and grading Naruto, and, in Owl's case, correcting his test, and at night, while he slept, they had a little meeting, much like the one they'd had in the night of their arrival, to discuss his exams.

"For his test, I had him perform a few genjutsu I taught him. Genjutsu is not his strong point, quite the opposite actually, so they were all simple, practical illusions, designed to confuse your opponent and mess up his senses, to be used with taijutsu and ninjutsu, since they won't defeat an enemy on their own." Wolf informed. "Despite some slight difficulties with a low B and a few C-ranked ones, he managed to pull them all off. For the second part I put him under several illusions of increasing power and had him try to break free. His technique is not the best, but what he lacks in patience and control he makes up for with the unbelievable amounts of chakra that he pumps into his own circulatory system to clear it."

"How many genjutsu was he able to break free of?" Lion inquired.

"He broke free of a total of twenty-two illusions. He wasn't able to escape a low A-rank genjutsu and we ended there."

"His final grade, from F to S. Note that even though C is a positive, if he merely achieves that, he will be considered to fail."

"I grant him a B in Genjutsu class."

"Very well." Lion said, scribbling something down on a notepad. "Owl?"

"Out of 106 questions he answered 78 in two hours time, an impressive number. It is obvious that the objective of the exam was not to complete it, but to see how he did under a rather severe amount of pressure. Out of the 78 answers, 56 were absolutely correct, 18 were incomplete and 4 of them were wrong. Out of 100 points, he scored 68, which is very, very good for the purposes of the exercise and earns him a B+." Owl announced.

"Alright. Let's-" Lion started, stopping when he realized that Owl was holding up a finger, indicating that she was not done talking yet.

"However, throughout the year he revealed a big desire to learn and improve. He behaved particularly well during classes and showed interest in many of the subjects. He also got considerably better results in other tests we made, and as such, I believe he deserves an A- in theoretical education. I think that all that the boy ever needed was a bit of attention."

"Spare us to the sentimental details…" Hare told the blonde. This earned him an alarm clock to the head.

"Hare. How did the boy do?" Lion asked after taking notes of Owl's info.

"Well, to put it simply, he's a natural at ninjutsu. It's like he was born to do it! He had amazing chakra reserves before his training, during which his chakra coils developed. I'd say that now, his chakra capacity is somewhere around that of a very high jounin's. If the boy continues to work hard, his chakra will rival that of the Kages by the time he turns 13."

"But isn't that the work of the Kyuubi?" Wolf said.

"The Kyuubi has little to do with this. I hired a Hyuuga clan member to look into his chakra system. While it _is_ true that the Yondaime's seal is filtering and purifying the demon's chakra and inserting it into the boy's chakra circulatory system and it _may_ speed up in the future, as Naruto gets stronger and the seal weakens, only about a tenth of his current chakra was once the Kyuubi's." Hare explained.

"On to the ninjutsu." Lion told him.

"Right, sorry. So I was saying, the boy's enormous quantities of chakra and stamina more than make up for his somewhat lousy control. I taught him mainly elemental jutsus, from D-rank to high B-rank. My exam consisted in doing several jutsus of increasing difficulty. The more, the better. He had exactly three soldier pills at his disposal, but it was an hour before he decided to take the first one and the third…" He showed a tiny sphere on his hand. "Is still here. He managed to go through all the jutsus he knew and I had him repeat some until the two hours were over. If not for his lack of control, he'd have an easy S, but as such I'm forced to lower it to an S-."

"Very well." Again, Lion wrote something and spoke himself. "I guess it's my turn now. The boy likes taijutsu, and is quite good at it. I focused mainly on strength and speed, taught him five different styles, from D to B-rank, and had him show all of them for the first part of the test. For the second part, I had him show his weapon skills. Because I taught him taijutsu the most, which I believe will be more useful, he doesn't specialize in any particular kind of weapon. His knowledge is limited to the typical kunai and shuriken and the occasional Fuuma Shuriken, and he attained an A for both of those. Finally, we both sparred. Besides making use of all of his styles and weapons he shows an astonishing ability to improvise, catching me by surprise several times. His final grade in taijutsu class… A+." He wrote it down too. "All in all… the boy has grown from an Academy student to a certain high-chuunin level.

"We made it." Owl stated.

"_He_ made it." Wolf corrected.

"Mission complete." Lion said. "Congratulations, guys! And congratulations… Naruto."

* * *

"Naruto."

"Naruto!"

"NARUTO!"

"What the-" Naruto looked at the person who was shouting. "Lion-sensei… did you just call me by my name? Did Owl-sensei or Wolf-sensei finally tell you what it was?"

"Haha, that's really funny, brat. In fact, why don't you tell some more jokes instead of getting to know the results of the exams?"

"Wha- already?" Naruto asked, earning a nod from Lion. "Wow… that was fast… Iruka-sensei always took ages to correct the ones we did back at the Academy…"

"Right, because he was just one and had a whole class of students." Lion said. "But enough chit-chat. Do you or do you not want to know how you did?"

"Of course I do!"

"Alright then. In genjutsu: you lack technique and control, but more or less make up for it due to your big chakra reserves. You failed to break free of a low A-rank illusion and could not produce a genjutsu higher than low B-rank."

Naruto gulped. Those were too many negative aspects for him to be comfortable with.

"You got a B." Lion informed him. The boy let out a sigh of relief. "Congratulations, gaki!"

"My name is Naruto!" The blond yelled, annoyed, but let his sensei ruffle his hair anyway.

"In Owl's test, you answered 78 questions out of 106. You got 56 right, 18 incomplete and 4 wrong, scoring 68 out of 100. According to her, you show interest, enthusiasm and, surprisingly, good behavior."

"Who's the one with the lame jokes now, sensei?"

"Shut up, gaki." Lion ordered. "You get an A-. Now for ninjutsu: Hare says you're a natural at it. You lack control but have impressive chakra and stamina. You got an S-."

That left Naruto utterly confused. "An S? What's that?"

"Well, last time I checked, S was a letter of the alphabet and the mark above A." The ANBU told the boy.

"There's a mark above A? But… Iruka-sensei only marks tests up to A!"

"Which probably means that no one in your class ever deserved better." Lion said.

"_Not even Sasuke gets S's!" _Naruto thought.

"Anyway, taijutsu and weapons now: You did good brat, really good. I don't feel like going into details, so… you got an A+. Congratulations, gaki: You pass with flying colors!"

Naruto's explosion of happiness took Lion fifteen minutes to control. "Just quit jumping around already!" He shouted, holding the hyperactive knucklehead in a headlock. "You need to get your things ready! We're going back to the village now!"

The boy's eyes widened. "As in right now?"

"As in we'll leave you here alone if you don't hurry up!" Naruto poofed away and Lion was suddenly holding a log. "Meet us at the Gate!" He shouted, knowing that the boy would hear it.

Naruto ran to the Gate, carrying a small backpack that contained all of his possessions, most of which sealed in storage scrolls: a few clothes, most of them orange; his many kunai and shuriken and some instant ramen. Apart from the crappy furniture back at his apartment, that was everything he owned.

After five minutes, Naruto got to the colossal iron gate that marked the entrance (or in this case, the exit) to Training Ground 0. The Gate was the only way to go in or out of there without being blocked by the S-rank genjutsu that covered the whole area.

Naruto briefly wondered how _he_ was going to conceal the area when _he_ was Hokage. S-rank genjutsu were definitely out of question.

His four ANBU senseis were already there waiting for him.

"Naruto-kun! Congratulations!" Owl said, pulling him into a crushing hug that stopped him from breathing and caused his face to go crimson. It also didn't help that she was unintentionally pressing her big breasts against his face.

"When you two are done, we'd really like to go back to the village today." Hare pointed out.

Owl let go of Naruto and kicked Hare right in between his legs. "Quit ruining the moments!" She ordered, staring down at the man who was now rolling on the ground in deep agony.

Lion sighed. "Let's just go already. Owl, you kick, you carry."

And so, the blond Jinchuuriki and three of the ANBU walked through the gate. Since Hare was being dragged by Owl, it didn't count as walking. The boy looked back to see where they had come from, but he couldn't see the Training Grounds or the Gate any longer. Instead of those a rocky mountain stood, the illusionary mountain behind the Hokage Monument, hiding the Hokage training zone from any unwanted visitors.

* * *

The Third Hokage sat behind his desk with a _very_ tired look on his eyes. He had been taking care of paperwork for the last four hours. On his left was a neatly organized, huge, colossal, titanic pile of forms, reports, requests and all of that kind of junk. On his right, a much smaller pile. The big pile had a small cardboard sign on the front. It read "To do".

Sarutobi sighed. He could _swear_ that that paperwork was reproducing. He blamed the upcoming chuunin exams. You'd think it would only take a year or so to organize such an event, but he had started doing so two years before and was still drowning on paperwork.

Someone knocked on the door, making the Third smile. Whoever that was, it would be nice to take a break. "Come in." He said.

The door burst open and an orange blur tackled the unsuspecting Fire Shadow, knocking his desk over, which resulted in a shower of paperwork.

"Ojii-san! We're back!" The blur, which turned out to be Naruto, shouted. "Wow." He then added, looking at the paper-covered floor. "This is even messier than my room."

The Sandaime felt like crying. It would take _days_ to get all of those papers back the way they were. He got up and looked at the group that had just entered his office.

"You're one day early. But where's Hare?" He asked.

"It was faster and easier than we thought. Hare had an accident while training and got injured." Owl lied, her mask hiding her mischievous smile. "We dropped him off at the hospital."

"Very well. Seeing as you're here too," The Hokage told Naruto. "That must mean you've passed, right?" He asked him, earning a nod and a wide smile.

"Here's the report, Hokage-sama." Lion said, handing the old man a couple of very big files. That was just what the latter needed. More paperwork.

"Naruto, you may go now." Sarutobi said. "Academy starts in fifteen minutes and considering that you've only got today before graduation, I doubt that you want to miss out on the chance to prove to Iruka that you should be allowed to do it."

After the boy had rushed out of his office, he turned to the three ANBU.

"Go fetch Hare. You and I still have some matters to discuss."

* * *

The children stared at each other with suspicious looks. There was something going on… Iruka-sensei had something up his sleeve. He was unusually happy that day… not even the huge fight Ino and Sakura had had had upset him.

Five minutes after the beginning of the class, someone knocked on the door, and every student could tell from the look on their teacher's face that that visitor (whoever it was) was the reason for his happiness. He opened the door…

… and Naruto walked in.

The whole class was baffled. That included Sasuke, Shino and Shikamaru, and surprising those three was… well, surprising.

He had stopped attending to classes about two years ago, and there had been several rumors about the reason.

Some said that he had left the village.

Some said that he had been kicked out.

Some others were sure that he had been arrested.

Some even went as far as to say that he had died.

Some said that a demon had taken him away, perhaps to hell.

And then there were those who just listened and didn't say anything, like Hinata.

As for Naruto, he waved nervously at the class. It was exactly the same as when he had left.

"Now, Naruto, why don't you sit down so we can go on with the lesson?" Iruka kindly suggested.

The blond boy scanned the room for empty seats. As usual, both seats next to Shino were free, and Naruto didn't intend to anything about it. There was another unoccupied seat in the back of the room, next to Sakura who was probably on one of her bad days since she had lost the one next to Sasuke to Ino. And finally, he spotted Hinata in the middle of the room, with Kiba on her left and a vacant chair on her right.

He came to a decision pretty quickly.

He went up the stairs, passing by Shino on his way. As he got to the seat next to Hinata he hesitated for a bit but ended up proceeding and sitting on the chair next to Sakura, who visibly flinched and moved away from him.

This earned him more confused looks from the others, who still remembered the day when Naruto had completely ignored the pink-haired girl and sat next to the Hyuuga heiress.

Although Iruka was just as confused as his students, he forced himself to draw the attention away from the boy. "Aham!" Every students' heads turned back to him. That was better. "We'll start today's lesson with a few questions about today's subjects."

Moans were heard all over the classroom.

"Now, now." Iruka proceeded. "Surely you know that our village, the Village Hidden in the Leaves, is located in the Fire Country, right?"

Most students nodded.

"But who can tell me where the Sand Village is located?"

A few hands shot into the air.

"Sasuke?" Iruka asked.

"Wind Country." The Uchiha answered.

"That is correct." The chuunin said. Some fangirls squeaked. "How about… the Village Hidden Amongst the Rocks?"

"Earth Country." Sasuke replied.

"Correct. The Village Hidden in the Mist?"

"Water Country."

"Village Hidden in the Clouds?"

"Lightning Country."

"Village Hidden in the Grass?"

Sasuke thought for a moment before speaking again: "I don't know." His fangirls let out sighs of disappointment.

"Does anyone know?" Iruka asked without much hope. If Sasuke didn't know that, it was highly unlikely that anyone else did… That's what he thought before spotting something that made him smile more widely than he ever had. "Naruto?"

Again, the students turned back to check on Naruto, who did indeed have his arm up in the air. Many of them chuckled. If Sasuke hadn't gotten it, how could Naruto hope to?

"Wilderness Country." The blond boy said.

"That's absolutely correct!" Iruka shouted with delight.

Naruto looked around the room to check on his classmates' reactions. As expected, most looked like their eyes were about to jump out of their orbits, Hinata was just as happy, if not more, as Iruka, and Sasuke's fangirls glared daggers at him, even if their idol didn't seem to care.

"How about the Village Hidden in the Rain? Anyone?" The teacher asked. Naruto's hand was once more the only one in the air.

"Storm Country."

"Correct! Hidden Star Village?"

"Bear Country."

"That's right! Hidden Reef Village?"

"Ocean Country."

"Yes! Village Hidden in the Mountains?"

"It was destroyed by Kumogakure, but it used to be in Desert Country."

"Very good! Hidden Tree Village?"

"Also doesn't exist anymore, but used to be in the Fire Country too."

This went on for ten more minutes until Iruka ran out of village names, Naruto having associated each with their respective country correctly every single time. To say that the chuunin was happy or that the class was surprised were both heavy understatements.

"Well, as you all have figured out by now, we're going to talk about Hidden Villages and their Countries today." The Academy sensei explained. "After that we'll have some target practice, and then a written test. Remember that you must get at least a C- in that test to qualify for the genin exam."

* * *

"Very good! _Another_ bullseye!" Iruka said, writing the results in a piece of paper after Sasuke had thrown his last kunai. "That makes a perfect score… again! Congratulations!"

"Hn." The Uchiha mumbled, fangirls already gathering around him, shooting Naruto "think-you-can-do-better?" looks.

"Your turn, Naruto." The teacher instructed.

"Alright! It's about time!" The blond boy yelled as he stepped in front of the target, ready to show everyone how awesome he had become. He knew he'd get a perfect score easily, but that wasn't enough to surpass Sasuke… He racked his brain for a moment to find a solution to that problem.

The rest of the class watched as Naruto looked around for something, disregarding the target completely.

"Whenever you're ready, Naruto." There was a hint of impatience in Iruka's voice.

With incredible speed, Naruto threw his kunai all of a sudden. It missed both the target and Iruka's face, the latter by a mere inches.

Silence. Then…

"NARUTO!"

The angry chuunin moved forward and grabbed his student by his collar before he could react.

"Waah, no, Iruka-sensei, wait! Wait! Look over there!" Naruto shouted, pointing to where his sensei had been standing.

He let go of the Jinchuuriki and did as the boy had asked. "I don't see anything."

"Look closer."

"Still nothing."

"Here, let me show it to you, sensei." The Kyuubi container said, leaning down to pick something up. He then held out his hand for Iruka to see what was on it.

"A… a fly?" On his student's hand was what looked like two halves of a fly.

"I noticed it was bugging you and decided to take it out." Naruto said. "Does this count as a bullseye?"

But Iruka didn't answer. He was too busy widening his eyes and opening his mouth, as was most of the class.

* * *

It was lunchtime. Almost all of the class was gathered around the old willow tree in the playground, watching the usual fight between Sasuke's fangirls with delight, placing bets on the fiercest and most obsessed of them.

Naruto looked around. That day's fight seemed to be particularly big, and it had attracted most of the students. The only ones who weren't there were some kids from other classes, Shikamaru, who was way more interested in napping than eating, Chouji, who was already on his fifth package of chips, Shino, who seemed to be examining a ladybug on a leaf on the ground, and Hinata, who sat against a tree, an opened lunchbox that contained her homemade food (which looked as tasty as the ramen he had brought) on her lap.

With a very long sigh, Naruto turned his back on them all and headed towards the swing to eat alone.

"I've got a surprise for you!" Iruka excitedly told the class. Many students gulped. That couldn't be good. "Because that exam today decides whether you take the genin exam tomorrow or not… the Academy hired a special group of shinobi to correct your tests amazingly fast, so we can have them today!" He pulled a few papers from a drawer in his desk. "Here they are!"

Naruto, who had found himself sitting between Chouji and Shikamaru after lunch, watched as Iruka ignored the look of dread on his students' faces and delivered the tests, saying the grades out loud for everyone to hear.

"Sakura Haruno… A. Hinata Hyuuga… A. Kiba Inuzuka…C. Sasuke Uchiha… A+."

Naruto took his hands to his ears, as did Shikamaru, Chouji and most of the class, to muffle the sound of the fangirls' squeals.

"Be quiet!" Iruka yelled, going on with the delivery of the exams. "Shino Aburame… A-. Ino Yamanaka… B. Taka Romoki… B-. Akesa Niworu… D. Saso Okomo… F. Naruto Uzumaki…" He stopped next to the Jinchuuriki, careful as to remain expressionless. "You got an S+!"

"An S+? Is that even lower than F?" A fangirl whose name was of no interest asked.

"Actually…" The Academy sensei said. "An S is higher than an A. Congratulations Naruto, it's been ages since I saw one!"

"So that idiot had a better mark than Sasuke-kun?" The same girl insisted. "Iruka-sensei, there must be a mistake in the correction, or maybe the exams were swapped or something, but this is impossible!"

"I say that the baka cheated!" Another fangirl shouted. "And Sasuke-kun must've held back!"

Two more fangirls stood up and opened their mouths, ready to give their own opinions about Naruto's mark, but the chuunin was much faster: "Be quiet and sit down!" He ordered. The girls immediately obeyed him. "I expected you to have realized that already, but Naruto isn't the same as he was two years ago. Just remember the fly that he-"

"That was a lucky shot!" The first girl yelled.

"Oh, so I suppose getting all those questions right in the beginning of the class was also lucky." Iruka stated coldly.

"I… well… He must've cheated!" She said.

Seeing that he could not convince the girls that Naruto was not an idiot any longer, Iruka went for another approach. "The exams were corrected by a professional team and checked several times. There's absolutely no way they've been swapped or wrongly corrected. Naruto Uzumaki obtained the highest grade, and that's final."

"Yes, but… Sas-"

"Sasuke Uchiha was given an A+." He informed. "And that's that."

The boy in questions didn't really seem to care that he hadn't gotten an S, but his fans were ready to object once again.

"But that's im-"

"Geez, just shut up already! How's someone supposed to sleep if you're always so noisy and troublesome?" The word "troublesome" immediately gave away the speaker as being Shikamaru. "Look, it's really simple: Naruto got an S+, Sasuke got an A+. There were no mistakes. So stop complaining already! Such a drag…"

"Thanks for that…" Naruto told the Nara boy as the fangirls finally shut up and Iruka went back to delivering the exams. "They were starting to get on my nerves…" At that precise moment, Shikamaru was given his test. "So, how did you do?" The Kyuubi container knew that Shikamaru was a genius, as were most Nara, and did not understand why _he_ didn't get S's.

The lazy boy showed the blond one the little "C" on the corner of his exam. "A C is the perfect mark." He explained. "It's enough for you to pass, yet you always keep expectations to a minimum."

"_Oh. So that's why." _The Jinchuuriki thought. _"He really is as lazy as he looks."_ "How 'bout you, Chouji?"

"I got a B+!" The big-boned boy proudly replied.

Naruto shot him a smile. He then turned back after feeling a tap on his shoulder, finding out it'd been Kiba.

"Congratulations!" The Inuzuka said. "Someone finally beats Sasuke! And you of all people! What were you up to these last two years?" Not giving the blond an opportunity to answer, not that he would have, anyway, he proceeded. "I've been trying to do the same myself for as long as I can remember, but…" He looked angrily at his C. "Yeah… So, how about you three come with me and Akamaru to Ichiraku's today, after classes, to celebrate? You'll have to pay for your own food though, my allowance is small enough as it is, without paying for others' meals."

Naruto looked around. Only he, Chouji and Shikamaru were listening to Kiba, so that meant… "Wait… so… you mean me too?" He asked.

"Of course! You're the one who beat the Uchiha, after all!" The dog-nin answered. "So?"

"I'm always in for food!" Chouji said.

"Sure, why not…" Shikamaru followed.

As for Naruto, he could only nod, euphoric about being finally included in something.

"Awesome!" Kiba said. "Let's meet at the Academy entrance when classes end!"

* * *

"What took you so long?" Kiba yelled at Shikamaru, who was slowly walking towards him, as lazily as ever. "We've been waiting for ages!"

"Geez, calm down! It's only been two minutes…" The Nara heir complained. "You're always so troublesome…"

"Let's just get going already!" The Inuzuka turned around and started walking, throwing a fist into the air. "To Sasuke's defeat!"

Speaking of him, Naruto had just spotted said boy from the corner of his eye, walking down the street he always took to get home, followed closely by Sakura.

"Hey guys, do you mind waiting just a minute? There's something I have to take care of…" Without waiting for an answer he ran off towards Sasuke, leaving the three other boys wondering why he had done so.

"Probably wants to make fun of him or something…" Kiba suggested.

"Hey Sasuke! Sasuke, you bastard! Sasuke!"

Sasuke turned around, as did Sakura, to see Naruto running towards him, calling for him.

"What do you want, idiot?" He asked, curious as to why the blond wanted to talk to him.

As for Sakura, she stepped back and faced the ground, unable to look him in the eyes.

"Well, I wanted to tell you something…" Naruto said as he reached the Uchiha. "I… well, I never really got to thank you for trying to save me three years ago…"

Sasuke didn't know what to say to that, so he chose his usual reply: "Hn."

"I know that you and I aren't exactly _friends_ or anything, but you still tried to save me, so… uh… thanks."

But before the dark-haired boy could answer to _that_, another voice was heard.

"Oh, isn't _this_ touching?"

Naruto knew that voice. His eyes widened and his heartbeat sped up.

"Where have you been all these years, brat? We've been looking for you. We still have some business to deal with."

Sasuke and Sakura seemed to recognize the voice as well. As one, they turned around. Before them stood three masked men.

Their masks: a Lion, an Eagle and a Cat.

* * *

**End of Chapter 2**

* * *

Wow, I've been waiting forever to write this cliffy! I hope it was good enough for you all!

Also, I feel like I should warn you that it's not only Naruto who'll get stronger. I'll be giving the rest of the Konoha 12 power-ups as well. And yes, that _does_ include Sasuke and Sakura.

**Don't forget: Visit my profile and vote on the poll, I'm looking for a beta, and review!**


	4. Old Enemies

Wow! You never cease to amaze me! 8,278 hits, 128 reviews, 10 C2's, 167 favs and 231 alerts! And they keep going up! Could it get any better? It's up to you to answer that… by reviewing more!

Special shout-outs to both Tobi'sgoodgirllovesSasuSaku, for the translations of some of the jutsu into Japanese, and Third Fang, for agreeing to be my beta!

Now, I'm sorry I didn't answer to all of your reviews, but due to some problems (my slow Internet connection, perhaps, or something with the website) I didn't get most of the e-mails alerting me… I hope that things go differently this time.

Onto the story!

* * *

**Arc One: The New Naruto**

* * *

**Chapter 3 – Old Enemies**

* * *

"Hey there, brat. Missed us?" Cat asked.

Naruto didn't answer. Instead, he just gazed fiercely at the three men.

"Ooh, you look really scary!" Lion mocked, faking a shiver. "But unfortunately for you, we were recently ordered to kill you by any means necessary, so none of your little friends will be able to help you this time. We will stop for nothing."

"Why you…" Naruto suddenly vanished, appearing behind Lion a second later, a fist aimed at his face. However, before the punch could connect, Eagle kicked the blond boy in the stomach, throwing him past Sasuke and Sakura, onto a wall.

"Naruto-kun!"

The Jinchuriki got to his feet and looked at the person who'd just cried out his name: Hinata Hyuuga. She'd been running toward him and had finally reached her target. "Are you alright?" She asked nervously.

"Hinata-chan? What're you-"

Unfortunately Naruto was cut short as he noticed the three adult shinobi were charging at him. Sasuke got in front of Cat and started delivering blows as fast as he could. Cat managed to block everything that the Uchiha threw at him, but at least he was kept busy.

Naruto pushed Hinata aside to keep her away from the fight and ran to confront the two other adults. The Hyuuga girl, however, quickly regained her balance and decided to help her crush. She saw her opportunity when the blond boy punched Lion in the jaw, causing him to step away from his colleagues, and charged at him much like Sasuke had done three years before.

Naruto caught sight of what she was doing and suddenly knew the outcome of it before it even happened. Lion took notice of the attacking girl and easily, almost lazily, kicked her in the chest with immense strength. She was thrown back, coughing blood before she even hit the ground.

"Serves the little demon-loving bitch right…" The masked nin mumbled.

"HINATA-CHAN!" He shouted, breaking free of Eagle's grasp by hitting, and probably breaking, his nose and rushing to her side as Sakura had already done. Sasuke joined them a few moments later, a little beaten up but otherwise alright.

"She's not in any danger…" Naruto said out loud with a sigh of relief. "Someone should get her to a hospital, though."

Meanwhile, the three other ninja were also talking. They hadn't counted on their opponents being that strong. Nothing they couldn't handle, of course, but still enough to be a nuisance.

"We can't keep fighting them here." Eagle warned them. "We'll be really screwed if someone else shows up."

"We've got to lure him away somehow." Lion stated.

"How about that girl?" Cat asked, pointing to Sakura. "Doesn't the demon have a crush on her?"

The others immediately got the idea. Eagle and Lion took out flash bombs from their weapons pouches and threw them. The light momentarily blinded the children and Cat leapt towards them. When the Academy students regained the ability to see, the former was back with the others, now holding a kunai to Sakura's throat.

"Now, brat, either come with us or your little crush here gets it!" He threatened, vanishing with his teammates and the pinkette in clouds of smoke, knowing that the blond boy would be able to track them.

"Sasuke!" Naruto shouted, turning to his classmate.

"What?" The Uchiha replied, carefully looking at the blonde and wondering what was going through his head.

"Please, take Hinata-chan to the hospital!" He said, as said girl coughed more blood. "Please!"

Sasuke didn't move. "How about you? What are you going to do?" He asked.

"I'm going after them and saving Sakura, of course! I can't abandon her… even if _she_ did that to me." Naruto answered seriously.

The Uchiha thought about it. It _was _Naruto's fight after all… _he_ had been the one to be beaten up all those years ago… "Just don't finish them off too quickly." He told the blond as he picked Hinata up. "Save some for me."

Naruto smirked and nodded. "Will do. Thanks…"

"Hn." He replied with what seemed like a small twitch of the lips before picking up Hinata. Sasuke ran off to the hospital with the shy girl in his arms while Naruto disappeared with a poof and a cloud of smoke.

* * *

Sakura was carried by Cat as the three masked shinobi dashed through Konoha Forest, leaping from tree to tree. She had accepted her fate a few minutes before, when they had left the village: she would die at the hands of those men because there was just no way Naruto would come for her. He would abandon her, like she had abandoned _him_. These were the consequences of her cowardice those years ago and she did not believe that there would be any exceptions.

"I guess you're lucky, girl." Cat said with a dark chuckle.

Before she could understand what was going on, they dropped to the ground and she was thrown against a tree, next to which she would lie for the next minutes.

Then Lion spoke suddenly, "So you came. We were starting to think you wouldn't."

"Don't think I'm as cowardly as you goons. You honestly need to take a hostage to beat a couple of academy students?" A very familiar orange-clad boy appeared with a poof. He looked at his opponents with pure fury, something that Sakura had never seen before, and she could feel the killing intent coming from him even though she was not the one to who it was being directed.

"Naruto!" She cried out of fear and guilt. "Get out of here! You're outnumbered! You'll never be able to beat them!"

But he didn't do as she'd told him. "Always underestimating me, uh, Sakura?" He mumbled. "I'll show you I'm just as good a ninja as anyone else."

"Naruto!" Sakura tried to warn him that Cat had been sneaking up on him, but it was too late: The masked nin aimed a powerful kick at Naruto's back and…

… went through the boy, who stood there smiling, before disappearing with a poof.

"_A bunshin?"_ Cat though. _"Then where's the real one?"_

He got his answer seconds later, as a rock by Eagle's feet transformed into the boy and hit the startled shinobi with an uppercut to the jaw.

Now he had a broken nose _and _a broken jaw.

Naruto turned around and started exchanging blows with the other two at the same time. They were good at taijutsu, but so was he. The blonde managed to block all of their attacks and even land some of his own, which infuriated the two assailants to no end.

"Back off!" Eagle suddenly yelled despite his broken jaw. "Leave him to me!"

Lion and Cat did as their squad leader had told them, as the latter walked towards the Jinchuriki, his mask bloody and cracked from the blond's attacks.

"You got _two_ lucky hits on me brat. You'll get no more! **Raiton: Kobushi no Raimei! **(Lightning Style: Fists of Thunder)"

* * *

Sarutobi Hiruzen had been meaning to read the report on Naruto's training, but sick of paperwork as he was, he decided it would be much easier to just call in the four ANBU (Hare was finally out of the hospital and the Third had yet to discover what kind of training accident could do _that_ to someone's most private area.) and ask all the questions he wanted to. He'd go over the file for details later.

"So… exactly how strong is the boy now?" Hiruzen asked. He expected high genin, maybe even low chunin with some luck.

"Well, we estimate he's around high chunin and low jonin by now." Lion replied.

That left the Hokage speechless for a few seconds.

"High chunin to low jonin? How did a boy that started with two years of Academy training able to make it to low jonin in another two years? Are you sure about this?" He questioned.

"Quite sure. In fact, the only things preventing him from becoming normal jonin-level are his lousy chakra control and his problems with genjutsu. Plus he'd need to learn some A-rank techniques. Although we believe he'd be able to learn A-ranks by now, the strongest jutsu he knows are all high B's." Owl answered.

"Believe us, Hokage-sama, he's got talent, never-ending determination and a very strong desire to keep getting stronger and protect those who are precious to him." Wolf stated. "If all of our shinobi were like him, Konohagakure would be unstoppable."

"I believe you." The Sandaime assured them as he relaxed in his chair again. "And I believe in him, too. Now, how about his elemental affinities? If I am to train him in the future I must know what techniques he can perform."

"Well…" Hare trailed off as he remembered the day when they had found that out.

* * *

"_So what're we doing today, Hare-sensei?" Naruto asked excitedly as he failed to stay in place._

"_I assume Owl taught you about elemental affinities today." The boy nodded. "We're now going to find out what yours are and start working on your main one."_

"_Yatta!" The boy yelled, pumping his fist into the air. Ever since he'd been attacked by a Suiton-using shinobi when he was nine he'd been itching to learn how to do the same. Also, he'd long ago grown tired of all the chakra control exercises that Hare had put him through: walking up trees, walking on water and all that crap, and no actual ninjutsu. But now they finally got to the good part!_

"_Here. Hold these." The ANBU told him, handing him two pieces of paper. "One in each hand. Now, you're left-handed, right?_

"_Yeah, but when do we get to the elemental stuff? These pieces of paper are really pretty and all, but you told me we'd be finding out my affinity!" The orange-clad boy's outburst earned him a hit to the back of his head._

"_Shut up and listen! What have we told you about patience?" Hare scolded. "We _are_ going to learn your affinity. Fortunately, there's a simple test for that: You see, that paper you hold is not any regular paper. If you pump chakra into it, it will react according to your affinity. The one in your left hand is your primary affinity and the one in your right one is the secondary. The paper will burn if it's fire, get soggy if it's water, be sliced in two if it's wind, wrinkle if it's lightning and crumble if it's earth. Got it?"_

"_Yeah." Naruto answered._

"_Good. Now pour a little chakra into both pieces of paper." Hare instructed. "_A little!_" He repeated, remembering the Jinchuriki's tendency to overdo with the chakra. "Alright. Now check them out."_

_The blond did just that. The piece of paper in his left hand had been split perfectly in half, and the one in his right hand had gotten soggy and crumbled to tiny little bits._

"_Looks like your main affinity is Wind." The ANBU said. "And… what's this? Looks like you've got two secondary affinities: Earth and Water."_

"_Is that a good thing? Is it rare?" Naruto inquired._

"_Advanced shinobi can usually use three elements, the third being what we call a tertiary affinity. A double secondary affinity only means that your Water affinity is as strong as your Earth one, and that you've got no tertiary. It _is _good. It's not unheard of, but it's not exactly common either. It usually runs in the family."_

"_Alright! Let's get started then!"_

* * *

"So his main is Wind and he's got both Water and Earth as a double secondary, uh?" Sarutobi asked.

"Hai. Also, his secondary affinities are stronger than normal." Hare said.

"That's good… I'll be able to teach him some Earth Style…" The Hokage muttered. "Now… how about…"

* * *

Eagle charged at Naruto with electricity running through his hands. You didn't have to be a genius to see that getting hit by that would hurt a lot. Blocking was out of the question too, so all the boy could do was dodging. That proved to be more difficult than what he'd expected, though: Eagle was fast.

By examining their technique and style of fighting, Naruto had deduced they were all about high chunin-level. He could probably take each of them one-on-one and win, but it'd be very hard fighting the three at the same time. He just hoped the other two didn't jump in. Not until he'd defeated Eagle, at least.

The blond boy fell on his back to avoid a lightning punch and kicked Eagle in the stomach as the masked nin leaned over him. The power of the Jinchuriki's blow threw his opponent against a tree and gave him the opportunity he had been looking for.

"**Fuuton: Kaze Kodo! **(Air Style: Wind Pulse)" He shouted. A strong wind swept the area. It did no damage to any of the other ninja, but the lightning on Eagle's hands faded. Naruto then proceeded to explain his technique, as all anime and manga characters do: "You see, by pumping a lot of wind chakra onto this jutsu and having it sweep the battlefield, I can eliminate any Raiton technique. 'Cause wind beats lightning, you know." He had lied, though. He couldn't eliminate _any_ lightning jutsu, only ones from D to high C-rank, and the occasional low B-rank. He had created that jutsu himself with a little help from Hare, but it wasn't completed yet. In fact, it'd been a bit of a gamble to use it, since he'd never tried it out on an actual battle. He was, however, proud and pleased that it's worked. As Hare had said, "What better way is there to master a jutsu than to create, develop or modify it yourself to fully understand it?"

"Oh yeah? Then take this, you brat!" Cat yelled from behind him. "**Suiton: Suigadan! **(Water Style: Water Fang Bullet)"

"**Doton: Doryuheki! **(Earth Style: Earth Release Wall)" The wall that Naruto created absorbed the projectile as if it was nothing. "And Earth beats Water. You should study your elemental jutsu a little harder." Naruto taunted.

Eagle, who had meanwhile gotten up, charged at the boy, as did Cat and Lion. Soon enough they were again engaged in a taijutsu battle.

"**Fuuton: Tatsumaki Ken! **(Air Style: Tornado Blades)" The Jinchuriki shouted. Sharp, deadly blades of wind were shot from his hands, towards his opponents, who managed to dodge most of them and avoid fatal blows to vital areas.

That jutsu had been taught to him by Hare, whose affinity was also Wind. He hadn't had a chance to work on modifying it yet, but although he wished it was a little bit faster, he was quite happy with the way it worked.

He repeated the technique a few more times, leaving some more cuts and gashes on his three enemies. However, they just kept on charging and shooting their own jutsu at the boy, forcing him to keep moving and dodging, giving him as little time and room as possible.

He also got more tired by the minute. Constantly running, jumping and ducking to avoid the blows was taking its toll on him, and that was saying something since he didn't tire easily, but he still wasn't recovered from the two years of training (he'd probably need two years of sleep to reach his peak again) and hadn't had the chance to get some decent rest yet.

The masked nin got tired much faster than he did, but there were three of them and only one of Naruto. It didn't take long for the masked opponents to start using tactics that benefitted their numbers. One would always fight Naruto with taijutsu, forcing him to block and preventing him from pulling off any techniques. Another one would stay back, throwing weapons and jutsu at him and protecting the third one, who would be resting.

They had been at it for about half an hour, when Cat, the one who was resting at that moment, stood up. The boy waited for Eagle, the one who was fighting him, to retreat, and Lion, who'd been throwing shuriken non-stop, to come forward, but Eagle didn't do so. Instead, he seemed to push him even more. From the corner of his eye he saw Cat and Lion doing some hand signs together. That couldn't be good.

"**Doton: Doro Houshi! **(Earth Style: Mud Indulgence)" Lion yelled.

"**Suiton: Ja no Kuchi! **(Water Style: Mouth of Evil)" Cat followed.

Naruto had been looking at them, distracted, giving Eagle the perfect opening. The blond was knocked back by a punch to the temple, allowing the shinobi with the bloody mask to join his comrades, making hand signs in the process.

"**Raiton: Jibashi! **(Lightning Style: Electromagnetic Murder)" He shouted. "Now you'll what happens to whoever messes with us!" He joined his technique with the mud river the other two had created, electrifying it.

"Damn!" Naruto whispered as he jumped onto a tree. That would be _very_ hard to dodge. The water gave the mud momentum and had it cover a huge area, the earth gave it the strength to knock trees and such over and the electricity ensured that the damage would be more lethal. One touch and it would all be over. "**Doton: Doryuheki!**" He expected the wall he'd created to absorb the water, rendering the entire technique useless, but a bolt of lightning shot towards it, destroying the entire defense before the muddy river even reached it.

"Lightning beats Earth, didn't you know?" Eagle mocked.

Naruto started to panic before making some new seals. _No problem. I'll just eliminate the lightning first, then._

"**Fuuton: Kaze Kodo!**" However, the wind did nothing.

"You won't be able to eliminate the lightning while the earth and water protect it!" Lion roared in triumph. "It's over for you!"

It certainly seemed so. The ground wasn't safe anymore, as it was mostly covered in electric mud, and it was only a matter of time before all of the trees were taken down. Then, Naruto would have nowhere else to go.

"**Kagemane no Jutsu! **(Shadow Possession Technique)" Someone shouted.

The three masked nin froze. Eagle suddenly stopped the flow of chakra by moving his hands, thus undoing the seal. The electric current ceased and the Jinchuriki jumped to the dirty but safe ground.

"**Tsuuga! **(Tunneling Fang)"

"**Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu! **(Fire Style: Giant Fireball Technique)"

"**Nikudan Sensha! **(Human Boulder)"

A giant, rolling ball collided with Lion, Eagle got hit by a huge fireball and Cat met a drilling grey object.

Next thing the blond boy knew, Shikamaru, Kiba and Choji were gathered around him, Sasuke was untying Sakura, who had gotten hit by a few weapons and lost her senses, and the three other shinobi lay unconscious on a pile.

"You were taking too long, so we decided to go and check on you." Shikamaru yawned lazily before the orange-clad boy could even open his mouth. "We found Sasuke there, and he told us to find you. Kiba tracked you down by your scent, and here we are."

"Thanks…" Naruto told them. Then he turned to Kiba. "… wait you tracked me by my scent?" How was that possible? The genjutsu he had on himself at all times was supposed to fool even ANBU dogs.

"Yeah!" The Inuzuka replied, obviously very proud of himself. "By the way, you're not bleeding, are you?"

"No… why did you ask?"

"Sasuke told us that they hadn't hurt Sakura…" Kiba answered. "So whose blood was that that we found back in the village?"

"Blood?" Naruto said, confused. Then he remembered. "Hinata! Shikamaru, can you take these guys to the Hokage for me?"

"No way, that's just too troublesome-" The Nara started.

"You can? Great, thanks, got to go, bye!" Naruto interrupted, clearly not listening to the lazy genius before dashing in the direction of the hospital.

And just like that the Jinchuriki was gone.

"How can he still move that way after what he went through?" Choji asked curiously.

"He's just troublesome like that…"

* * *

Hinata slowly opened her eyes. Why had she woken up already? She was still so sleepy… The girl inspected her surroundings. Lots of beds, white walls and ceiling, a smell of sanitary water, bleach and medicine… No doubt about it, it was the hospital.

Then, as the reason why she was there slowly came back to her, she also realized why she had awakened so soon.

"Come on, let me in!" An all too familiar voice shouted.

"Be quiet!" A feminine voice that Hinata assumed was the nurse's replied. "I can't do that, she's supposed to be resting!"

"But I have to see her!" The first person whined.

"I'm sorry but that's impossible! She isn't even awake yet!" The second one countered.

"A-ano…" Hinata said, trying to be as loud as possible and failing miserably. "I _am_ a-awake…" However, the others seemed to hear her. They were quiet for a few seconds, then the first one spoke again:

"See? She's awake, now just let me in already!"

The door burst open and Naruto entered the room.

"Hey, Hinata-chan, I'm glad to see you're alright!" He greeted, then pointed to a chair next to her bed. "Can I?"

Hinata nodded and he took the seat.

"So… um… you _are_ alright, aren't you?"

"Y-yes… How a-about you?" She asked with a small blush. Of course that he had to be alright, he hadn't even been hospitalized, and she couldn't put into words the relief she felt because of that, but she wanted to know what had happened.

"'Course I am! We totally kicked those guys' butts!" The blond announced excitedly. "They were no match for the awesome Naruto Uzumaki!"

The Hyuuga girl smiled happily. What was there about that boy that always made her feel like that? Then she remembered the exact reason to why she was lying on that bed and her smile vanished. "I'm s-sorry I c-couldn't help…" She mumbled. "I k-know I'm n-not any s-strong, s-so I should've j-just stayed b-behind and not b-be a b-burden…" She was constantly in other people's ways; her father had always made that very clear. "I'm t-terribly s-sorry you had t-to go t-through all the t-trouble of v-visiting me here…" Hinata was unable to face the Jinchuriki, and therefore didn't see his shocked expression.

"Hinata-chan!" He said firmly. "Don't you ever say that again! It wasn't any trouble at all! And even if you're not that strong now, you can always train to become better! Besides, life isn't all about strength! There are many other things too! And you, you're the sweetest, kindest, bravest person I've ever met and I'm sure you'll become a great kunoichi someday! I… I'm the one who should be sorry… That's actually the other reason why I came here to see you…"

Hinata managed to keep herself from fainting due to a mixture of confusion and worry. Blushing very hard, she stuttered: "S-sorry? Why?"

"Well, you were my first friend my age, Hinata-chan." The blond explained. "Before I met you I only had Iruka-sensei and ojii-san, but after I was attacked and you saved me, I thought that you might be different from the other kids and I tried to be your friend… then I was gone for two years and I didn't even tell you. I know that's not what friends do, and you must be angry at me, and I'm really sorry for-"

"I m-missed you…" The girl whispered with her hair hiding her eyes.

"Uh?" Naruto couldn't have heard right.

"I m-missed you…" The Hyuuga girl repeated, a little louder. "I w-wondered where y-you were…"

"I tried to tell you, but you fainted and I was getting late… I went on a… training trip… for two years." Naruto tried to explain nervously. "But… you said you missed me?"

Hinata nodded, too embarrassed to talk again.

"So you… you don't hate me? You're not angry at me for leaving or anything?"

The girl shook her head.

"So… we're still friends?" He couldn't hide the hopeful tone of his voice.

She nodded, and Naruto gave her the biggest smile that she'd ever seen on anyone.

"Thank you!" He yelled excitedly. "Thank you so much, Hinata-chan! I promise I'll be the best friend _ever_! And I never go back on a promise!" The boy then leaned forward and hugged his friend as tightly as he could. "Thank you!"

That was too much for poor Hinata, who still had a hard time withstanding physical contact with him. The blond kept hugging her for two more minutes before he noticed she was out cold, her face red all over and a cute, silly smile on it.

"Weird…"

Before he could stand up and leave, the door opened and in walked the nurse he'd been arguing with earlier.

"You're still here?" She said with an evident look of disgust.

He paid her no attention, however, concentrating instead on the person who'd just followed her, dressed in hospital clothes like Hinata: Sakura.

"Go away, now. The Hyuuga girl is sleeping again and I doubt that Sakura-chan here wants to put up with you any longer." The nurse told him.

"Gladly." He coldly answered, surprising even himself as to how quickly his attitude change before getting up and heading for the exit.

"NO!" Sakura suddenly shouted, causing the other two people in the room to look at her curiously. "No… uh, let him stay, please."

The nurse frowned, but did as she was asked and quietly left the room muttering "What's with girls and demons these days?" or something of the sort, but no one heard her.

"So… why do you want me here?" Naruto asked in a less than friendly tone.

"I… I wanted to thank you for going after me… for saving me…" Sakura said nervously while looking at her feet.

"Oh. That. No problem, I did what anyone would've done." The blond spoke those words innocently, but as soon as they left his mouth, causing the pink-haired girl to flinch, he realized that they had hurt her. She faced her lap, but he could still see that her green eyes were getting watery.

Nevertheless, she proceeded. "Also, I want to say I'm… I'm sorry. I'm sorry for what happened two years ago…"

Naruto sighed. "Sakura, let's not talk about that-"

"No, I need to get this out of my system! I need to apologize! You could've died!" She yelled. "I've been feeling terrible ever since, I-"

"So that's it? You're just doing this to relieve your conscience? You think a simple apology will make it all better, just like that? Do you even care about me at all? You're right, I could've died!" He had feared that if they continued that conversation, he might burst. Now it had happened, and all he could do was go with the flow. "I could've died and you abandoned me! You left me there! I know I wasn't the brightest of students and kind of annoying, but I liked you, Sakura! I really liked you! And you left me… Was I so horrible that you'd leave me like that?"

Sakura faltered and took a step back. "Naruto, I-"

"Why didn't you go back for me? Why didn't you tell anyone about me?" He shouted with pain in his eyes.

"I did!" She suddenly burst, tears running freely down her face. "I did go back for you! But there was no one there, only a trail of blood! I thought they'd taken you!"

"Then why didn't you tell anyone?" He frowned.

"I was afraid!" Sakura cried. "I was afraid they'd come after me and my family! I was just a little girl; I didn't know what to do!"

"I don't know, Sakura… are you sure you're really sorry?" The Jinchuriki said emotionlessly, earning a confused look from the girl. "Are you really sorry for abandoning me? Isn't all of this just a way of easing your conscience? Would you even have apologized at all if I hadn't come back strong and smart like Sasuke? If I hadn't saved you? If I had called someone instead?"

Sakura's throat closed as she looked at the boy. "Na-"

"If I'd died, if Hinata-chan hadn't showed up, would you visit my grave or just forget that you could've saved my life?"

After that last sentence, both Naruto and Sakura went silent, pondering on what had been said.

"I'm… I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said those things. I forgive you, Sakura." He finally said quietly after a couple of long minutes. "I just hope I'm not making a mistake." He knew that it would be very hard to feel the same way about her again, but perhaps they could still be friends… and who knows? If she _really_ started acting differently, then… well… leaving him hadn't made her any less pretty… "I've got to go now, I bet ojii-san wants to see me."

And with that, he left.

"Thank you, Naruto…" Sakura whispered. "You won't regret that."

Hinata moved uncomfortably on her bed, thinking about what she'd just heard.

* * *

"Alright, calm down, calm down!" The Hokage ordered all the ANBU ops in his office, who were attempting to deliver several different oral reports at the same time. "Calm down at once and tell me what's going on in an orderly manner!"

"There was a fight in the forest…"

"… three children checked in at the hospital…"

"… three unidentified masked shinobi…"

"… trees burned…"

"… Uchiha, who didn't sustain any severe…"

"… brought by a student…"

"… mud and blood all over…"

"… Sakura and Hyuuga Hinata, who…"

"… claimed to have attacked…"

"Calm down, calm down already!" Sarutobi yelled. That would be the last time he had rookie ANBU deliver him reports: he couldn't understand a single bit! They were high-chunin or low-jonin, new to the black ops and eager to do any kind of mission. These ones were far too excited. It made him wonder who had picked them for a job of silence and spying in the first place. "One at a time!"

Then the door opened and a familiar blond walked in.

"Hey, ojii-san!" The blonde greeted happily, ignoring the other people in the room.

"Naruto? What in the name of the Shodaime are you doing here?" The old man asked.

"Well considering I was in the middle of this mess I figured you'd like to know what happened. It would take less than an hour for me to explain what happened, and probably five if you let them keep at it…" Naruto answered nodding his head to the arguing ANBU.

Hiruzen's eyes widened. He turned to the ANBU, gestured towards some chairs and said: "Sit down and watch a real report being delivered. Naruto, if you please…"

* * *

"So you're telling me that you fought three high-chunin level ninja at the same time, survived, managed to keep a hostage alive and they were defeated by some Academy students in the end?" The Hokage asked, earning a nod from the boy. "Scorpion." He sighed, turning to one of the ANBU. "I trust that those three in question are locked in and secure?" He got a silent nod in response. "Take them to Anko and Ibiki for interrogation as soon as they wake up. Find out who they are, who they work for and anything else that may be of use." Scorpion nodded and vanished in a cloud of smoke. "Squirrel. Inform your superiors of this. They are to form a squad to clean up the forest." This said, Squirrel was also gone. "Baboon. Inform the children's families of what just transpired so we do not get any more confused guests in my office by the end of the day."

As soon as Baboon had disappeared, the Third turned his attention back to the boy.

"Naruto. Just how powerful are you?" The boy shrugged his shoulders. The Sandaime knew it was an honest answer. "I have no doubt that you'll graduate tomorrow. However, given that your sensei seemed to be unable to accurately estimate your strength… plus, with the chunin exams coming up, I've got so much paperwork to do…" He wondered how to break it to the boy and decided to be direct. "I'm not going to train you right away."

"WHAT?" The Jinchuriki screamed, just as the Hokage had expected. "No fair, ojii-san! You told me you'd train me!"

"I am still going to train you, Naruto, only later. But if you behave, I promise I'll make it up to you." The old man explained with a gentle smile.

"How?" The blond asked.

"You'll see soon enough. Now leave, please, I've still got a lot of work to do." The Sandaime ordered. The boy opened his mouth to argue, but he added: "The sooner I get done with the paperwork, the sooner I'll train you."

It took Naruto only three seconds to leave the office.

* * *

The following day, Naruto was happy to see that Hinata and Sakura had been allowed out of the hospital and were in condition to take the graduation exam. Not only that, but Sakura seemed well enough to be up for her usual fight over Sasuke with Ino.

The Jinchuriki spotted Hinata sitting alone in the back of the room. Now that he knew she wasn't mad, he could stop avoiding her. With a silly, joyous smile he headed towards her, only to stop when Ino and Sakura blocked his path unintentionally, their eyes locked on each other and electricity running rampant between them.

In between yells of "Ino-pig!" and "Billboard Brow!" the boy was able to let out a "Could you let me pass, please?"

"You baka!" Ino shouted immediately forgetting that she was in a stare off with Sakura moments before, raising a hand to slap him. "Don't interrupt us!"

Naruto was more than ready to avoid or, if needed, block the hit, but it wasn't necessary.

"Don't hit Naruto, pig!" Sakura grabbed Ino's wrist and twisted her arm behind her back.

After a brief glance of confusion at the Haruno girl, the blonde Yamanaka broke free and the two resumed their fight as if nothing happened, minus the new dialogue between them.

Ignoring Ino's enraged "Why did you defend the idiot, billboard brow?" yell, Naruto walked past them with a smirk on his face, whispering "Thank you." to Sakura when he brushed against her. She was certainly on her way to get his friendship.

"Kiba Inuzuka! Please perform the minimum number of bunshin!" Iruka called out as he entered the room when the blond reached his chair. The dog-nin and his partner, Akamaru, got in front of the class.

The exam consisted in producing as many bunshin as one could, requiring at least one to pass.

Kiba was able to make two, although the second one dispelled in a second, without a command.

Sakura was next, and she got an impressive three stable bunshin.

Hinata surprised everyone by achieving four bunshin.

Sasuke got applauded by his fan club when he got ten bunshin in the room. The rest of the class (mainly the boys) just rolled their eyes.

"Naruto Uzumaki!" Iruka called out. And it was finally his turn. He stepped in front of the class and waited for his teacher's order. "You may begin."

He made a handseal and released his chakra. White smoke filled the entire room, along with several dozen poof sounds. When the smoke was gone, the classroom was completely filled with bunshin. They were on the walls and ceiling, under desks and chairs and on top of them too, inside cupboards and somehow, shelves, on top of each other…

"They didn't all fit, so I created some outside, too." Naruto said, pointing at the window.

… on top of trees, on the playground, in the hallways of the Academy…

"Alright, that's enough! Just get rid of them already!" Iruka shouted as he nervously looked around him and tried to deal with the unnatural sight of so many children in orange jumpsuits.

More poofs and white smoke, and all of the clones were gone. The blond boy looked at the chunin examiners to check their reactions. They were all speechless and astonished, but the most surprised of them all were doubtlessly Mizuki, whose eyes looked like they were going to jump out of their orbits, and Iruka, who was the first to recover and shouted "You pass!"

Naruto smirked confidently as he recalled the time when he had first succeeded in doing that Jutsu, with Hare.

* * *

_A pale, dummy-like clone of him lied on the ground, next to Hare._

"_Gaki, we've gone over this a thousand times already! You're forcing too much chakra into the technique!" The ANBU scolded, but sighed shortly after. He long since found out that yelling at the boy wouldn't be of any help._

"_I can't release any less chakra, Hare-sensei!" Naruto shouted back._

"_Is that so?" Hare said as he pondered his student's dilemma. He'd just gotten an idea. "Alright, try this then: release exactly the same amount of chakra you'd release for a clone._

"_But you said that was too mu-"_

"_Just do it. Then, before using that chakra to create a bunshin, split it into little bits, the smaller, the better. Finally, use each of _those_ bits to create a clone."_

_The blond did as he'd been told. To his surprise and delight, ten clones popped into existence. Hare smiled._

"_Finally." He said with relief before explaining to the boy what he had just done. "Your problem was that you never knew the exact amount of chakra needed for a clone. When, in the Academy, they told you to release as little as you could, then keep adding some until you got it, it was enough for ten of these! Then, when you tried to create only two or three bunshin, you'd double or triple that amount, always pumping too much into each one. Now, I want you to do the following: every day, try to create minus one clone than what you have done now. When you manage to create only nine, try to create eight, and so on. You'll be able to do a single bunshin in no time."_

* * *

It was already night. A lonely figure sat on a rooftop, watching the full moon.

The next day the new genin teams would be announced and assigned to their respective jonin sensei at the Ninja Academy. Amongst those genin was Naruto Uzumaki. Right now though the person mentioned before was watching the moon in the night sky.

"That was a very impressive test performance." Someone said. A second figure jumped from the ground to the rooftops to join Naruto.

"Uh? Oh, Mizuki-sensei. Thanks!" The boy proudly replied.

"In fact, I've seen chunin do worse than what you did." Mizuki continued.

"Really?" Naruto asked, not used to getting compliments from anyone but his secret teachers.

"Yes. You could easily graduate to chunin, Naruto. I know that you're strong enough to do that, and that's why I'm going to let you in on a little secret, although Iruka doesn't want me to." The chunin whispered to the recently made genin.

"If Iruka-sensei doesn't want me to know the secret, shouldn't you keep it to yourself?" Naruto asked, worried.

"It's alright, there's no problem at all." Mizuki assured the Jinchuriki. "You see, every year, according to the results of the graduation exams, the teachers get to pick one, and only one student to take another special exam. Whoever passes it automatically becomes a chunin! That's why the teachers have to pick the best one of them all."

"Wow! That's awesome! So I've been picked?" Naruto excitedly inquired.

"Well, kind of." Mizuki answered. "I told Iruka that I thought that it should be you this year, but he didn't agree. He picked Sasuke instead."

"Sasuke? But… I got an S and he got an A! And I made a lot more clones than him!" The boy yelled.

"I know, that's what I told him, but he wouldn't listen! He said that you only passed the exam thanks to a mix of luck and cheating! And worst of all… no, I probably shouldn't tell you this…"

"What? Tell me!" The Kyubi container demanded.

"I would, but I wonder if you can handle it…" The chunin said with a spark in his eyes that was not noticed by the blonde.

"I can, now tell me!" Naruto demanded.

"Alright, alright!" Mizuki sighed. "Iruka, he… he told me that to him… you'd always be the dead last." He let his words sink. They seemed to produce the desired effect.

The boy lowered his head, facing his feet. "So… Iruka-sensei… he was never happy for me in the first place?" His tone of voice indicated that he was trying to keep himself from crying.

"I'm afraid not." The blue-haired Academy teacher replied, gently patting Naruto on the back. "But don't worry: I'll always be here for you."

The blond sniffed. "Thank you, Mizuki-sensei."

"Now, Sasuke will also be doing the test tonight, but only one person can become chunin. How about you prove to Iruka that you are _not_ the dead last any longer?"

"Yeah!" Naruto shouted as all the depression he had before instantly vanished. He didn't notice the smirk on the white haired man's face.

"Good. So here's what you have to do…"

* * *

**End of Chapter 3**

* * *

And that's it! Stay tuned for the next chapter to see the Scroll Incident, the Team Placements and even maybe the Bell Test!

Also, don't forget to **REVIEW** and check my profile to vote on the poll!


	5. The Bell Test

So it's been too long since I last updated and I'm really sorry for keeping you all waiting so much for this chapter. Now that I'm finally on holidays I'll have more time to update, I hope.

One little thing you ought to know, though: I deleted that part where Sasuke thought about Naruto's newfound strength. I was kind of in a hurry when I wrote that and I found that it gave off the wrong idea (him being a stupid jerk). It's not what I want to transmit (for the time being) and it would be better if you just forgot about that part, which is not very difficult anyway, 'cause it took me so long to update you probably don't remember the story… There will be no character bashing and Sasuke won't be (that much of) a cold bastard in this story.

* * *

**Arc One: The New Naruto**

* * *

**Chapter 4 – The Bell Test**

* * *

As the test progressed, Naruto got more and more confused, not that he hadn't been in the first place. For starters, Mizuki's attitude towards him struck him as a little odd, and Iruka was acting just as funny. Unlike the latter, Mizuki had never been a big supporter of Naruto, and although the brightly haired teacher probably didn't realize it, the boy knew perfectly of that.

Also, the mission itself was a bit strange. Even though the blond _did_ understand the purpose behind it, the collecting of important information and documents, essential to every shinobi, he couldn't make out why the scroll he had already stolen had been in the Hokage Tower, of all places, and guarded by the old man himself, of all people. The only way a recently graduated genin would fool or get past him and stealing something he was guarding was if the geezer faked it! (Well, most genin, but he, Uzumaki Naruto, was different. A quick Oiroke no Jutsu and the old man lay out cold, flat on his back, on a small puddle of blood that flowed from his nose.). Wouldn't it have been more logical to put a chunin, someone whose level he was trying to reach, on guard to see if the one taking the exam could surpass them, thus showing off the required amount of skill?

Finally, there had been no sign of Sasuke, and if he knew the Uchiha (which he was certain he did), the duck butted emo wouldn't pass on a chance like this.

Naruto sighed and shrugged off the odd feeling on the back of his neck. This was his opportunity to become a chunin, and one step closer to Hokage! Then everyone would realize how great he was and finally respect him!

However, the pieces that didn't quite fit grew in number as he got to the indicated spot in the forest, sat down and opened the scroll, eyeing the techniques inscribed on it including the one he had been told he was supposed to learn. The rank wasn't there, but he could tell that the jutsu seemed too powerful for a chunin to know. His desire to grow stronger and his short attention span though, got the better of him and he excitedly got ready to work. Mizuki would be there in no time to end the exam, so he had to be quick. He went over all the jutsu on the original scroll until he found one that seemed particularly interesting. _"Kage Bunshin… sounds cool... but why does it have to be clones again?"_

* * *

"Mizuki-sensei, you're kind of early!" The blond said as the chunin jumped down from a tree. He looked a little nervous as he sheepishly scratched the back of his head. "I only had time to learn one jutsu!"

Mizuki tried to hide the fact that he was sweating abundantly from Naruto. One of the other ninja that the Third had dispatched to search for the boy could be there any moment soon. Actually, he'd been lucky to be the one to get to him first. He wasn't certain of it, but he thought he'd seen a Hyuga amongst the search party. Nevertheless, he forced himself to smile and talk to the blond: "That's great, Naruto! It looks like you passed! Now just give me the scroll so I can return it and you may head home."

Naruto didn't promptly obey or start celebrating his passing of the inexistent exam, as Mizuki had expected him to. Instead, he just got up and looked at the blue-haired Academy teacher suspiciously. "But, uh, sensei… don't you want to see what I've learned before you pass me?"

"Oh, that, sure!" The chunin rapidly answered. He jumped at the minimum sound from behind him, the littlest rustle of leaves sounded like someone lunging forward to attack him. He had to wrap that up fast. "You see, that's not really my job… you should head to the Hokage Tower and show it to the Sandaime!"

"I see… but why did you tell me that I've already passed and can go home?" Naruto questioned with a clearly fake innocent look on his face. Mizuki however, nervous as he was, didn't notice this and took the Jinchuriki's question seriously.

"That's because I have complete faith in you and already know you'll pass. Now-"

Naruto smiled. "Oh, that makes sense… in that case, I'll just take the scroll with me to the Tower. That way you can go home early and rest a little, sensei…"

"_Screw this." _He didn't have time for that. "Just shut up and give me the scroll already, brat!" He screamed as he launched himself towards the boy, kunai at the ready. "DIE!" He stuck the weapon deep into the blond's chest, with a wicked, insane smile as he looked at the boy's surprised expression. The smile turned into the same shocked look shortly after when Naruto disappeared with a poof, leaving the scroll behind. Frantic as he was, Mizuki hastily grabbed the scroll and turned around to look for the runaway genin when he heard a faint hissing noise that he knew all too well. He spun to look at the scroll in his arm. Sure enough, an exploding tag sticking out of the rolls of the parchment slowly crumbled out of view, only seconds away from going off. Intent on preserving the Forbidden scroll he ripped the seal from it with a kunai and threw it as far as he could manage, right on time to avoid the massive blow.

He sighed in relief… then the scroll vanished in a poof as well. Oh, the brat was going to get it if he had anything to say about it. But he had little time: the loud explosion would most likely attract more enemies. He looked around for Naruto. He could easily feel his presence, but that didn't get him any closer to finding the boy. Mizuki had to hand it to the blonde: he certainly knew how to conceal himself. However, he knew just the way to make him get out of hiding.

"It doesn't matter what you do now, gaki! It doesn't matter if you escape me!" He cried out. "They think you stole the Forbidden Scroll! The Hokage has already sent shinobi after you! They'll find you, take you back to the village and execute you! You're as good as dead! They all hate you!" Then he added, not as loudly but still so the hiding boy could hear it: "And I know why."

From where he was hiding, Naruto gasped in surprise. Fortunately, the blue-haired traitor didn't seem to notice. But… was it true? Did Mizuki really know the reason he had been hated so much for all of his life? Probably, because the man obviously hated him as well, most likely for the same reasons.

"You must know about the attack of the Kyuubi no Kitsune, since you're such a _good_ student now, uh, brat?" The sarcasm was evident in the chunin's voice. But he had been right, the blond _did_ know about said event. He had gone over it countless times in his classes; Owl had been quite insistent on having him memorize all of the details, although he had been slightly disappointed about the part of the actual _killing_ of the demon being a bit vague. "The Yondaime didn't kill the Fox!" Mizuki continued. "It couldn't be killed! He sealed it into a newborn baby, who became the spawn of the demon! You, brat, you are that baby! You have a demon inside you and you _are_ one yourself! You killed thousands of people and brought endless suffering upon thousands of others! You are pure _evil_!"

His plan had worked: he heard a muffled sob from behind a tree. After some shuriken were thrown, the boy jumped out. Could it really be true? Was he really just a foul demon fox? Deeply shocked, he didn't even react when Mizuki unsealed a giant shuriken and threw it against him. If what he'd been told was true, then maybe the world would be better off without him, without a despicable demon that fed on misery and despair…

Warm, sticky blood splattered onto his face. He had closed his eyes and fallen backwards, now waiting for his death to come and take the pain and frustration away. He had expected it to be many things, but not painless. He hesitantly reopened his eyes to see Iruka standing over him on all fours. The blood was his, for the traitor's shuriken had hit his brother figure in the back.

"Naruto!" He yelled. "Don't believe him. Whatever he told you about the Fox, don't believe him! Yes, you do have the demon inside you, but you are not it!"

"He's lying!" Mizuki countered. "He despises you just as much as everyone else! You killed his parents!"

The boy shivered with wide eyes. "Iruka-sensei… is… is it true? Did I kill your parents?"

"No, Naruto! You didn't do anything, the Kyuubi did!" Iruka insisted, shivering, maybe because of the pain. "You aren't the demon! You are the protector of the village! By keeping the demon safe inside of your own body you stop it from destroying Konoha; the villagers just don't realize it! Don't buy Mizuki's lies, Naruto, you're better than that, I _know_ you're better! I always trusted you!" He stood up and forced himself to pull the giant shuriken from his back. It had penetrated very deep and had missed his spine by inches if that. Even though he clearly looked like he was going to, the scarred man was in no condition to fight his ex-colleague.

Before Naruto could fully recover from his state of shock, Mizuki quickly moved forward and delivered a strong roundhouse kick to Iruka's head, making him fall again. "Now Iruka, you die." He stated, unsealing another of his shuriken. "Don't worry, though. I'll send the brat right after you so he can keep you company." He threw the deadly ninja star as hard as he could, and it was with joy that he heard it hit flesh… but for some reason there wasn't a scream. Repeating Iruka's earlier actions, Naruto had shielded his sensei with his body, allowing the shuriken to bury itself into his back.

The clearing was lost in silence before surprisingly enough, the boy broke it: "Personally, I've never been much of a giant shuriken fan." He casually said, as if he was just happily discussing that subject with his friends. "Sure, they go deeper than regular ones, but they're much heavier and harder to handle, which means they are slower and harder to handle. Also, it's not like you can throw more than one at a time, and because they're bigger they're easier to block, if you have the means to. I'd stick to plain old shuriken if I were you. Or, if you still want to go for big, I think that a Demon Wind Shuriken would be much more effective. It's too bad you won't have the opportunity to try it." He disappeared with a poof and reappeared almost instantly on a tree branch behind Mizuki holding onto the Forbidden Scroll. "If you hurt my sensei… I'll kill you! **Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu**! (Multi Shadow Clone Technique)"

Suddenly, hundreds of Naruto clones filled every inch of terrain available, making fun of Mizuki, mocking him, taunting and, on some occasion, giving him the finger.

The traitor only had time to let out a horrified scream before all of the clones descended upon him.

* * *

The next day, Naruto got to the Academy earlier than usual, because it was probably the last day he'd be there in ages, or because he was so excited with the team placements… or both.

The boy spotted Ino and Sakura fighting over Sasuke, and as always, the Uchiha didn't seem to give a damn. Shino was sitting quietly and alone on a desk by the far end of the room (At that moment, Naruto decided to be nicer to the Aburame from then on, and try to befriend him. Shino didn't seem to have any friends at all and the blond knew all too well how painful it was to be alone all the time, even if the bug boy didn't show it.), and Hinata, asleep with her head on her desk. Happy that the girl was already there he went and sat down next to her. Her mouth was slightly open, forming a delicate "o", and she had the most adorable blush on her cheeks, contrasting perfectly with the lovely tone of her skin.

"Naruto-kun…" She mumbled, stirring, moving closer to the boy in question and taking a deep breath, almost as if smelling him.

"_So cute…" _He thought, only realizing the meaning of the words moments later. _"Wait… did I just think that? No! I like Sakura… right?" _But he couldn't lie to himself and at that moment Hinata looked cuter than Sakura ever had. Then, as much as he hated doing that deep down, he gently shook the Hyuuga awake so as to stop staring at her. _"Not that she doesn't look cute when she's awake too… wait... again? Where are these coming from?"_

"N-Naruto-kun?" The girl whispered softly, slowly opening her eyes and sitting up straight. She had had a wonderful dream about the orange-clad boy before her. Too bad she'd woken up, but she didn't complain, since that meant being with the real one.

"I'm glad you're awake, Hinata-chan." He hadn't told her anything about the night before and didn't plan on doing so… yet. "Iruka-sensei should be getting here any minute to reveal the teams. I really hope I get to be in yours!"

Iruka and the rest of the class arrived within the ten minutes that followed. The recently graduated genin were unusually quiet that day, due to being extremely excited about the team placements, and urged their sensei to speak, something that had never happened before.

"Very well then, it's time I tell you what team you will be in." He said after waiting a bit for the children to be silent. "Team 1 will be composed of Nota Yamakuchi, Yuki Kokawa and Toyo Kitasaki…"

Hinata was just as anxious as Naruto, if not more, to find out who would be her teammates. She hoped with all her heart that she could be together with the blond and was extremely happy that he felt the same way about her. She caught Sakura stealing glances at him, but quickly dismissed it.

Iruka continued down the list. "Team 7 will be Naruto Uzumaki…"

"This is it, Hinata-chan!" He whispered, as if it was needed. The girl had never been more focused in all of her life.

"Sasuke Uchiha…"

"What? No! Why do I get stuck with Sasuke? This is not fair!" The Uchiha replied to Naruto's outburst with his trademark grunt. By then, every girl that hadn't been assigned to a team yet was just as attentive as the Hyuuga. It was the big moment, time to see which of them got into Sasuke's squad. As for Sakura, she really wanted it to be her. Not only would she get who in her opinion was the coolest and most handsome boy in the class, and a chance to rub it in Ino's face until the end of her days, but she'd also have more opportunities to show Naruto that she'd changed. For some reason she couldn't quite understand, she really wanted to be friends with him again.

"… and Hinata Hyuuga. Your sensei will be Kakashi Hatake."

Hinata's surprised "Eep!" was muffled by the moans of every other girl in the room, who considered it very unfair that someone who didn't even want Sasuke got in his team.

"This is awesome, Hinata-chan! We made it! We got in the same team!" Naruto yelled, enveloping said girl in a bone-crushing hug and overloading her senses, causing her to faint with a colossal blush.

Iruka held back a chuckle as he watched his favorite student's reaction and the girl who not so secretly had a crush on him react to said reaction. "Team 8 will have Kiba Inuzuka, Shino Aburame and Sakura Haruno. Your sensei will be Kurenai Yuuhi."

The pinkette looked doubtfully at her new team. She knew Kiba hit on as many girls he could find, and although for some reason he had never tried it on her, she deduced, from the strange looks he was giving her, that it wouldn't be that long before he did. And Shino was… well… creepy!

Iruka sighed as he continued down the list and prepared for the oncoming assault on his ears. "Team 10 will be Shikamaru Nara, Choji Akimichi and Ino Yamanaka. Your sensei will be Asuma Sarutobi."

"WHAT?" The Yamanaka girl shouted. She got the lazy ass and the fatty instead of Sasuke? Her only consolation was that Sakura wasn't much better: she had the creepy bug boy and the perverted mutt. On second thought, maybe Shikamaru and Chouji weren't so bad.

Iruka gave Ino a stern look. "That's it. Now, you are to meet your new sensei here right after lunch in one hour. By the way, jonin do _not_ appreciate late genin, so try to make it on time."

* * *

The Third Hokage sat alone in his office, thinking about the genin teams. Building a genin team was always a tricky task, so it was left for the Hokage to do. Of course he didn't do it alone, he didn't know most of the children well enough to achieve effective placements, but although he was advised by their academy teachers and usually went along with what they said, he had the final say in the matter.

The majority of the kids hadn't been that difficult to handle, but he paid special attention to nine of them, the ones that the teachers labeled the most likely to eventually qualify to be at least special jonin.

Team 10 had by far been the easiest of them all. He wouldn't want to undo the famous Ino-Shika-Cho trio and Asuma, who had worked with the original one several times, would be perfect as their sensei.

The other two had been slightly more difficult. He knew that Sasuke would have to be placed in Kakashi's team to have his Sharingan trained, even though it hadn't activated yet. As for Naruto, Kurenai wouldn't be of much use as his sensei, seeing as she specialized in genjutsu, which the boy wasn't so good at. Since Team 7 already had two boys in it, that left Shino and Kiba with the genjutsu mistress in order to maintain the 2 to 1 boy girl ratio.

Then came Sakura. Hiruzen wanted to avoid putting her with Naruto. He knew that what had happened two years before would most likely lead to some sort of conflict, even though the boy had already forgiven her. Besides Naruto and the Hyuuga girl seemed to be very good friends, and even though Kurenai wouldn't be able to have the tracking team she had requested, there was no other way. The Inuzuka nose and Aburame insects would have to do.

Overall, and although he had heard some nasty complaints about "the Kyuubi" being put in the same team as Sasuke, he was happy with the way it had worked out.

* * *

Naruto's good mood vanished very fast as Team 7 waited alone in the classroom for their sensei to arrive.

He had gotten in the same team as Hinata, he had eaten part of her lunch again (which was even more delicious than he remembered) and Iruka had told them that their sensei was one of the strongest shinobi in the village… but the waiting was really starting to get to him.

Every other squad had already been picked up, and Iruka had left after Teams 8 and 10 were gone. He couldn't afford to wait for the eternally late Kakashi… not that the children still in the room knew the reasons yet…

After the first hour, the blond had already lost what little patience he had. "Damn! Why won't he arrive?" He muttered. He headed towards the board, grabbed an eraser and turned his back on Sasuke and Hinata so they couldn't see what he was doing. When he turned again, it was covered in white chalk powder. With a mischievous grin, he slightly opened the door and placed the eraser on top of it so it would fall on whoever came in.

"Our sensei is an elite jonin, moron." The Uchiha said as Naruto joined Hinata, who was sitting on one of the desks. "Do you really think he'll fall for such a cheap trick?"

The Jinchuriki shot him a "shut-up" look, but even Hinata seemed uncertain about it. A few minutes later they heard the sound of steps coming from the hallway. A gloved hand grabbed the doorknob, pushed… and the eraser fell harmlessly on the floor. A head appeared, the body concealed behind the wall.

The man had spiky silver hair and wore the usual Leaf ninja attire: a green jounin vest on top of a dark blue shirt, plain pants of the same color, sandals and a weapons pouch. The one unusual characteristic about him, however, was his face, which was mostly covered by a mask equal in color to the shirt and pants, which only revealed his right eye, his hitai-te had been adjusted to cover his left one. "Did you really think I'd fall for a trap _that_ obvious?" He asked.

Suddenly, the eraser expelled more powder than it could possibly contain right onto the grown man's face with a hissing noise, enveloping him in a chalky cloud of pure white. As the target of the trap coughed non-stop, Naruto rolled on the floor laughing, Hinata let out a small giggle that no one heard and Sasuke smirked, amused and surprised about the blond's actual plan.

Kakashi got rid of the annoying substance by blowing it away with a weak fuuton jutsu and caught a glance of the eraser that was still on the ground. It had a simple seal drawn over it. _"So they stored the chalk there with a small containment seal and had it release a fuuton when it went off to blow it onto my face… that's… clever." _He thought, but the words that came out of his mouth were: "My first view of the team: you're a bunch of idiots. Meet me on the roof."

* * *

When the three genin got to the roof, their sensei was already there, reading a small book with an orange cover while letting out several girlish giggles. As soon as he saw them he hastily hid the book and gestured for them to have a seat.

"Well, let's begin with introducing yourselves." He said. "Tell me your likes and dislikes, your hobbies, dreams for the future and things like that…"

"Why don't you go first?" Naruto suggested. "You look kind of suspicious."

"Me? Oh, well… My name is Hatake Kakashi. I don't feel like telling you my likes or dislikes. I have lots of hobbies. Dreams for the future… hmm…"

"So… all you told us… was your name?" Naruto pointed out.

"Now it's your turn. Let's start with you there on the right." The jonin said, pointing to Naruto.

"Yosh! My name is Naruto Uzumaki. I like cup ramen. I like it even more when Iruka-sensei pays for my ramen. I also like Hinata-chan and all of my friends." Said girl blushed like mad. "I dislike the three minutes it takes for ramen to cook. My dream is to become the Hokage and have all of the people in this village acknowledge my existence! Hobbies… pranks, I guess."

"I see…" Kakashi said, sweatdropping and rubbing his head. "Next."

"My name is Sasuke Uchiha." The boy said with a sinister look. "There are lots of things I don't like and I don't really like anything. And… I can't really call it a dream… But I have an ambition. The resurrection of my clan and… to kill a certain someone."

"_He better not mean me…"_ Naruto thought, looking at Sasuke with wide eyes. He hated to admit it, but the Uchiha creeped him out sometimes…

"Alright… and lastly, the girl." Kakashi indicated.

"Hum… alright… m-my n-name is Hinata Hyuuga… I l-like… I l-like…" She was unable to say the words, but the way she looked at Naruto spoke for itself. The boy remained oblivious throughout it all. "I d-dislike people who j-judge others b-based only o-on their appearance and don't g-give them a chance to p-prove themselves… I have hobbies, f-flower p-pressing and c-cooking… m-my dream f-for the future is t-to b-become strong s-so my father and m-my clan can accept m-me and also…" This time she didn't dare to look at her crush, but Kakashi got the point.

"_We'll really have to work on her obvious confidence problem…" _The grey-haired man thought. So, as students, he had a lonely avenger who probably possessed the Sharingan, was the sole survivor of his clan and dreamt of killing his older brother, a loud, dense knucklehead with a powerful demon sealed inside him and an obsession with becoming Hokage and an extremely shy clan heiress with serious self-confidence issues and a major crush on the child everybody thought to be a giant, multi tailed fox hanyou.

That was going to be interesting.

"So far for the introductions. Tomorrow we'll start our duties as shinobi. First we are going to do something with just the four of us." The three genin looked at him inquisitively. "Survival training." Kakashi explained. "But it won't be like normal training. This time, I'll be your opponent." He then started cackling almost maniacally.

"What's so funny, sensei?" Naruto asked.

"Uhm… well… it's just that… when I tell you this, you guys are totally going to freak out." He raised a single finger and got closer to them. "Out of the twenty-seven graduates, only nine will be chosen to become genin. The rest will be sent back to the Academy. This training is a very difficult exam with a failure rate of over 66%!" The looks on their faces were priceless. Well, Naruto's at least, since Hinata and Sasuke managed to remain calm. The blond however, had his eyes the size of dinner plates and his mouth opened almost to his chest. "Hahaha! I told you you'd freak out!"

"What? No way!" Naruto shouted, furious. "But we worked so hard! Then what was the point of graduating?"

"Oh, that? Just to select those who have the chance to become genin." The jonin explained. "Anyway, tomorrow you have to show your real skills on the training ground. Bring all the shinobi tools you have. Oh, it would be best if you skip breakfast. You might throw up." He then took some sheets of paper from under his jacket. "The details are on this paper. And don't be late or else you immediately fail."

"_I can't fail here…" _Naruto thought. _"I've got to show Kakashi-sensei and the others all I've got and make him recognize my strength!"_

"_If we fail this test and get sent back to the Academy… I might not be in the same team as Naruto-kun again… I have to try my best!" _Hinata thought.

"_Hn." _Sasuke mentally grumbled.

* * *

"I guess we should've seen this coming…" Naruto mumbled to Sasuke and Hinata. "Should've brought a deck of cards or something…" Team 7 had got up early in the morning and headed straight to Training Ground 12 without any breakfast, just as they'd been told to. Unfortunately, the man who had instructed them to be there wasn't there yet and it'd been two hours already! The three genin were starting to see a pattern in that…

"Hey guys, good morning!" Kakashi finally showed up moments late and was welcomed by Naruto's shouts of "You're late!" He took a clock from the backpack he'd brought and placed it on a tree stump. "Alright, it's set for noon." He then showed the genin two bells which he then strapped onto his belt. "Here are two bells. Your task is to take them from me before the time is up. Those who don't have a bell by noon… get no lunch. Also, I'll not only tie you to one of those stumps, but I'll also eat right in front of you."

"_So that's why he told us no to eat breakfast…" _They all thought simultaneously, clutching their stomachs in discomfort.

"You only have to get one bell. There are only two, so at least one of you will definitely get tied to the stump. And… anyone who doesn't take a bell fails. So at least one of you will be sent back to the academy. If you want you can use shuriken and kunai. You won't succeed if you don't come at me with the intention to kill." He explained.

"B-but, s-sensei, you'll b-be in danger…" Hinata said nervously.

"Yeah, we'll definitely kill you!" Naruto joked. "You're so slow you can't even dodge a cloud of chalk powder!"

"In the ninja world, those with no talent often bark the loudest." Kakashi replied casually. "You can start… now."

Sasuke and Hinata immediately jumped back into the forest to hide, but Naruto didn't even bother to move. "You really _are_ an idiot, aren't you?" The grey-haired man asked. No decent ninja would attack an enemy much superior in power straight up front. It was like diving into shark-infested waters headfirst. Kakashi had a quick thought about whether the boy would do that. _"Probably…" _Naruto took a kunai out, spun it in his hand and got ready to throw it. Before he could do so, however, the jonin positioned himself behind the yellow haired boy, pinning his arm behind his back.

"_I couldn't even see him… so this is a jonin…"_ Sasuke thought, watching from behind some trees.

"So, you have finally acknowledged me? Well, it seems you are finally prepared to come at me with the intent to kill…" Kakashi said. "Hehe, it seems I'm beginning to like you guys…" At that precise moment, Naruto disappeared with a poof. _"A solid clone? That's impossible! A genin should never be able to make one!" _Maybe he'd have to be a little more cautious with _those_ three…

Naruto and Hinata sat together hidden amongst some bushes after having just seen the boy's clone being dispelled. Sasuke had ran off to somewhere, probably planning to steal the bells by himself.

"That idiot!" Naruto complained. "He said it himself: our sensei is an elite jounin! He'll never be able to defeat him alone! We've all got to work together!"

"B-but, N-Naruto-kun, there a-are only t-two bells…" Hinata said. Although she understood that that was not the correct attitude to take, she had been kind of hoping that her crush and her would team up and wipe the floor with their sensei. Then they'd each get a bell and Sasuke would be sent back to the Academy and they'd be alone on the team and then she'd confess to him… and… and… No. No more daydreaming. This was not the Academy anymore, and they needed all the help we can get.

"Our objective is to take the bells. If we manage to do it _and _show all we've got, sensei will _have _to pass us!" The blond replied. He then proceeded to create several more clones, who darted off in different directions. "Those will guard the perimeter around Kakashi-sensei and try to keep him busy while we look for the teme."

They darted off themselves and for the first five minutes the searches turned out fruitless. At least Naruto was still managing to keep Kakashi occupied by constantly spawning clones to replace those he had lost, and although he didn't feel tired yet, he wondered how much more his chakra could take. They couldn't move very far away from the jounin so that the clone replacements got to him on time, and the constant flow of clone memories Naruto got was a bit disorientating.

"A-ano, N-Naruto-kun…" Hinata whispered, seeing that they would go nowhere like that. "I could use m-my B-Byakugan, if you w-want t-to…"

"Byakugan? You have the-" Of course! She was a Hyuga! How could he forget about that? He had read on the Hyuga clan's famous doujutsu. It would be perfect in that situation! "Sure! Why didn't you tell me about it before, though?"

"Uh… I g-guess I f-forgot…" She lied. The truth was, she hadn't tried to use her Kekkei Genkai because she still hadn't mastered it and was afraid of what Naruto would say if she wasn't able to activate it. She would die of embarrassment!

Naruto, however, saw right through her. Wincing as another bunch of memories got to him, he put a hand on her shoulder, making her blush, as she said: "Don't worry, Hinata-chan. I trust you. I know you can do it."

The girl was suddenly invaded by a sensation new to her: something warm, something really good. She felt like she could do anything, like nothing would be able to stop her. She couldn't, no, she _wouldn't_ let Naruto down. She went through some handsigns with confidence she'd never had during any of her father's training sessions. Finally, someone encouraged her! Finally, someone trusted her! Finally, someone believed in her! "**Byakugan!**" she shouted. Chakra came to her eyes with more ease than ever before and she noticed she could also see a little farther, up to 200 meters, which completely shattered her previous record of 100. "Two o'clock, about 150 meters from here!"

They weren't even halfway through when Naruto visibly shuddered and yelled: "He's coming!"

* * *

So far, Kakashi hadn't seen any teamwork at all, but that didn't mean he wasn't impressed. With the blond, at least.

It was almost _inhuman_ to be able to make so many _solid_ clones. Was that the work of the Kyuubi no Yoko?

One thing that was surely _not_ the work of the Fox, however, was his taijutsu. It was amazingly good for someone his age, good enough to actually give the dog summoner trouble, especially when multiplied by… much. Kakashi had already lost count of all the Narutos he had destroyed, but they just kept coming.

At first, he thought that the boy's plan was distracting him with dozens of clones and taking the bells, which although simple wasn't that bad of an idea, but so far no one had even _attempted_ to get close to them. After a while, it seemed obvious that he was only buying time (and it surprised the jounin that he could afford to spend so much chakra to do that), but for what?

He created a shadow clone of his own and moved underground, tracking the first genin whose scent he could find: Hinata.

On his way, he received the memories of his replica, that had gone down a little faster than the original had expected, and knew that he didn't have much time left before Naruto realized he'd escaped.

He finally got to a clearing, where the smell was the strongest. Right on the center was the girl's jacket, an obvious trap that would never fool any decent shinobi. Did they really expect him to go and touch it? As he darted past it, however, a hissing noise was heard and it went off with a loud boom, spreading dust and smoke across the area.

"Did we get him?" A male voice said.

"N-no… that was a s-shadow c-clone… the r-real one is j-just a little s-stunned… should we t-take the bells now?" Hinata replied, hopping down from a branch of a tree without her jacket. The dark blue fishnet shirt she usually wore underneath it was somewhat tight, showing the curves she worked so hard to hide, rather impressive for someone her age.

"No. Elite jounin recover surprisingly fast when they're supposedly stunned… Let's just get Sasuke." Naruto told her. "Where is he now?" He ran off, followed by his friend.

"He hasn't moved. He's a-about 50 meters in that d-direction." She answered, pointing northeast as she caught up to the boy, who was forced to look properly at her for the first time since she'd taken her jacket off.

The sight of Hinata Hyuga without that baggy piece of clothing caused Naruto to avoid tripping on his own feet and falling from a considerable height by mere luck, even if to go against a tree seconds later.

"N-Naruto-kun! Are you a-alright?" She asked, genuinely scared by the boy's accident. "You're b-bleeding from your n-nose…" She added after he tried to assure her that he was fine.

"Oh, right…" He quickly wiped the blood from his face with his sleeve, not feeling the need to inform her that it was not due to the hit that he had a nosebleed. Why had he never noticed _that_ about Hinata before?

* * *

"_They must've added a detection seal to the tag and somehow had it trigger the explosion… plus, it was clearly modified to sacrifice power for speed…"_ Kakashi deduced after examining the remains of the tag which had been attached to the jacket. He was no fuuinjutsu expert, but he recognized some of the changes made. It was required that every jounin knew at least the basics of seals. But that had been made by a fresh genin…

Now, although it was a bit risky to keep on the offensive, he was getting more and more curious about their abilities… and he hadn't seen Sasuke yet.

He caught Hinata's scent again. Seeing as Naruto was with her, he found it a bit strange that he couldn't smell him as well, but quickly dismissed it. A quick shunshin and…

"Yo." He said, appearing before knucklehead and clan heiress. "I don't know what you're planning, but I'm afraid I can't let you go any further."

Opposite to what the masked nin had expected, the blond just sighed. "Guess we'll just have to take those bells now, then…" He said, charging against his sensei immediately after.

"I thought I'd told you not to underestimate me. Lesson number one: never charge your opponent recklessly." Kakashi said as he took the boy down by simply sweeping his feet off the ground with his leg.

"Got it!" The blond shouted, his clone disappearing, the real one throwing some kunai at the jounin from behind him.

He easily dodged them and got behind Hinata. "Lesson number two: never let your opponent sneak up on you." He aimed a punch to her back but ended up hitting a log.

"G-got it." She whispered from behind the dog summoner, failing to hit him with a Juuken strike.

He then attempted to cast a genjutsu on the girl but it didn't work, since she dispelled it, maybe a little _too_ easily for a genin. The grey-haired jounin sweatdropped. Punching another clone of Naruto, he said: "Guess you don't need lesson number three: know your genjutsu, then, right?" Kick, knee, elbow… three more clones were gone. "How about…" Kick, swipe, kick… "Ninjutsu?"

"Sorry!" Yelled a voice from amongst the trees. "Already know that too!" Sasuke jumped out from who knows where, his hands forming the tiger seal and his cheeks swollen. "**Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu! **(Fire Style: Grand Fireball Technique)"

Kakashi, taken by surprise by the Uchiha's early mastering of elemental jutsu, did nothing to stop the fireball as it enveloped him and everything within a three meter radius. However, when the fire was gone, there was a charred log where he had been standing. The three genin then decided it was best to be cautious and positioned themselves in a circle, back to back, waiting for their sensei to come out and whispering to each other, much to Kakashi's delight.

"_Not only are they very skilled, they also seem to realize the importance of teamwork…" _He thought. _"Maybe I could just pass them now, but… I'd like to know what else they can do." _It wouldn't be long before Hinata decided to activate her Byakugan, so he had to use what little time he had to attack first. _"Offence is the best defense, they say." _He created two shadow clones and had each of them attack one of the boys while he took care of Hinata.

It wasn't as easy as he'd thought, though. The Byakugan user had seen the clones coming and they were able to dispel one of them with one of Naruto's own. After that, Naruto and Sasuke teamed up to eliminate the other one, and meanwhile, the real Kakashi hadn't been able to land a single hit on the girl. In all honesty, her taijutsu was a bit sloppy and he hadn't seen a single display of Ninjutsu from her yet, but her dodging was formidable, even if he wasn't trying his best to defeat her.

In between strikes, he saw the ramen lover and the Uchiha whisper from the corner of his eye. Sasuke nodded and, next thing he knew, he was being attacked from all directions by orange-clad kage bunshins. Shaking his head, he sighed. When would the blond learn that shadow clones wouldn't work?

However, there was a reason behind all that: Hinata took that as a chance to retreat, going back to the two boys, who were going through handsigns.

"**Fuuton: Nenshou Kumo! **(Wind Style: Combustion Cloud)" Naruto shouted.

"**Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu!**" Sasuke followed. "**Kumiawase Fuuton to Katon: Jigoku Hidama! **(Wind Style and Fire Style Combination: Hell Fireball)"

Together with the sound of Naruto's "Hey! You said that _I _got to come up with a name!" yells, a fireball four, five, probably even six times the size of the regular Gokakyu, feeding off the air rich in oxygen that Naruto had provided to gradually grow even bigger, moved towards Kakashi. The Kawarimi wouldn't work with something _that_ massive and there was no water nearby for him to defend himself. When he'd told them to go at him with the intent to kill he hadn't expected them to try _that_ hard!

"**Doton: Doryuuheki! **(Earth Style: Earth Release Wall)" He said, creating the biggest wall he could manage, and even though he managed not to get harmed he found himself sweating hard because of the tremendous heat. To combine a B-rank and a C-rank to form a possible A-rank…

He checked on the genin from behind his protections, but they weren't there anymore. With a bad feeling he turned around, his back against the earth wall, to face a barrage of shuriken and kunai of considerable proportions. Kakashi smirked. It had been a very good jutsu and combination of attacks, overall a nice effort, but avoiding and defending himself against projectiles (even if many) was just basic for any decent jounin. He grabbed a kunai of his own and started deflecting all of the incoming weapons. By the time he noticed Hinata's absence, it was already too late: one of the last shuriken transformed into the girl, her arm pulled back and her palm open, ready to deliver a Gentle Fist strike… The copy nin hadn't been ready to dodge and got hit by her in the abdominal area, which was not too bad, considering she'd been aiming for the heart.

"_That was some good teamwork… I guess that will be enough."_ Clutching his stomach, Kakashi raised a hand. "Alright, that's enough." He announced. "You weren't able to take the bells, but-"

"What're you talking about, sensei? They're right here!" Naruto shouted, holding the objects in question.

"_What? When did they- How?" _The older man thought. He did his best to conceal his surprise, however, as he looked down at his belt. With all the fighting he hadn't even taken a proper look at it… _"Clever."_ A simple touch was all it took to cause the bells strapped to his waist to vanish with a poof and some smoke.

"Here you go, Hinata-chan." The blond said, handing her a bell. "And here you go, idiot." He continued, shoving the other one into Sasuke's hands.

"N-Naruto-kun… I d-don't want it… n-not if it m-means you won't g-get one…" The shy girl said, meaning to return hers to the boy.

"No. You and that loser need them more than I do. If I go back to the Academy I'll just end up graduating again in a couple of days." Sasuke interrupted.

"Don't be so cocky, bastard!" His attitude had surprised Naruto. Maybe he wasn't so bad after all… even if still a cold, arrogant little prick with a Hokage Monument-sized stick up his ass. "I'll be the one to graduate in two days!"

"_Unbelievable. The fight about who gets the bells has already turned into a competition…"_

"A-ano… Sasuke-san… you can have m-my b-bell if you want t-to… you and N-Naruto-kun should b-be the ones t-to p-pass, I b-barely did anything…"

"Hinata-chan! If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have been able to snatch the bells!"

"Alright, that's enough!" Kakashi yelled. The three genin had even forgot about him. "You all pass. Congratulations. You are the first team to do so." Covering his ears so as not to hear Naruto's "Whaaaat?", he proceeded. "A ninja must see underneath the underneath. Those who break the rules of the ninja world are trash, but… those who abandon their comrades are worse than trash. The true objective of this exercise was to work as a team, even if that meant that one of you would be sent back. The fact that there were only two bells should've caused you to compete with each other, yet you knew you'd only be able to get them by working together, plus you didn't fight for them in the end. I'm also surprised you were actually able to take them… even if just because I underestimated you. I'll be looking forward to working with you. Hinata, I'll be at your house tomorrow to inform your father of this. I'm sure he already knows what you're getting into, but it's standard procedure. You're all dismissed."

* * *

Sasuke had already left to the Uchiha compound, not bothering to spend more time with his teammates, leaving them alone by the Hokage Tower.

"Hinata-chan! How about we go and have lunch somewhere to celebrate? I'd also like to make it up to you for ruining your jacket…" Naruto said excitedly, scratching the back of his head with an apologetic grin.

Ignoring the little voice in her mind that insisted that it would almost be like a _date_ with him, Hinata forced herself to be convinced that it was only as friends and teammates. "It's a-alright… I've g-got p-plenty of them at home… you d-don't have t-to m-make it up f-for m-me if you d-don't want to…"

The boy sighed and shook his head. "Hinata-chan… When will you learn? You're not a burden or a nuisance of any type, I _enjoy_ spending time with you. We're friends, after all!" His eyes, which had been gazing at her face, slowly moved down to her breasts for what could be the 100th time that day. He quickly realized what he was doing and looked at her face again before she could noticed… then repeated it all over again… he was young, but he was still a man. "Now, it's a bit cold… will it take long for you to get home and get another jacket or something?"

"Uhm… I think s-so… m-my house is k-kind of f-far from here…" She finished her sentence in the shape of a thought: _"And father won't let me out again once I go in…"_

"I see… Well, I guess you'll just have to use this, then!" Naruto said, taking off his own jacket and handing it to Hinata. He had a plain black t-shirt underneath. "I'm not that cold. You don't mind, do you?"

Mind? It was like a dream come true! She took the orange piece of clothing from the blond's hands with wide eyes and a crimson face. It smelled of forest and ramen… it smelled of Naruto. As she put it on, she felt the warmth envelop her, almost as if he was hugging her… "A-Arigatou…"

"No problem! Now… have you ever eaten at Ichiraku's?" It was obvious that he'd been dying to ask that from the very beginning of the conversation, and the girl couldn't help but to giggle at his silly grin. It was wonderful, the way he shared that kind of raw emotion with the world, sometimes.

As for Ichiraku's, she'd gone there several times to watch a certain knucklehead, but she'd never actually _eaten_ there. "N-no…"

The boy was practically bouncing out of his skin at this point. "You _have got_ to try it, then! There's no better ramen in the whole world!" He then grabbed her hand and guided her through the village before realizing something and coming to an abrupt stop. "That is, if you want to go somewhere else, I'd be happy to-"

"I'd l-love to t-try Ichiraku's with y-you, N-Naruto-kun…" Hinata interrupted, touched that he was willing to give up on his favorite restaurant because of her. Did that mean… that he liked _her_ more than he liked _ramen_?

The boy put on a foxy grin. "Great!" He then led her the rest of the way and into a small establishment, where an old, grey-haired man dressed as a cook and a brown-haired girl greeted them.

"Naruto!" The old man said. It was good to see that there were at least _some_ people that didn't hate him. "I see you've brought your girlfriend along today! She's quite a catch!"

Hinata blushed even more because of the teasing and the fact that she was still holding hands with the boy. They hastily let go of each other and she bowed low to the two ramen chefs. "Hello… m-my n-name is Hinata Hyuuga. It's a p-pleasure t-to meet you…"

They returned the bow and introduced themselves as well. "I'm Teuchi, and this is my daughter, Ayame." The old man informed her. "So, Naruto, what's it gonna be today?"

"The usual, ojii-san." He replied before turning to his teammate. "What are _you_ going to have, Hinata-chan?"

"Uhm… I'll have a bowl of m-miso r-ramen, p-please…" She said nervously.

"Ayame!" Teuchi yelled to his daughter, who had meanwhile gone back to the kitchen. "Eight miso and two pork!" After that he went off to join her so that they could have the massive order ready as fast as possible.

"So… Hinata-chan, how's your training been going?" Naruto asked, attempting to break the uncomfortable silence that had been created. Hinata smiled, happy at the attention she was being given, and opened her mouth to answer, but was interrupted by…

"Naruto!" A feminine voice shouted. The two teammates spun in their seats. There came Sakura, running towards them. "Hi, Naruto. Hi, Hinata."

"Sakura-san." The Hyuuga replied with a bow, while the boy went for a more informal "Hey."

Sakura sat down on the chair by his left, while Hinata occupied the one on his right. The pinkette eyed the blue-haired girl suspiciously. "Why is she wearing your jacket?" she asked, surprising even herself because of the hint of jealousy in her voice.

"It's kind of cold and I blew up hers, so I lent her mine so we could have lunch together without her having to go home to get another one." He said matter-of-factly, not noticing said hint. "I was just asking her how she has been doing with her training."

"Oh, _my_ training is going great!" The Haruno girl squealed, once more preventing Hinata from speaking. "We passed Kurenai-sensei's test! You should have seen us! There was this sort of obstacle course, right, and we had to get to the end, and the last one would get sent back to the academy, but we wouldn't be able to get through some of the obstacles if we didn't work together, but we were competing against each other, see?" How had she been able to say all of that without a single breath in between? "And it was _me_ who came up with the idea to…" It was then that the food arrived. Sakura ignored that and kept talking until Naruto and Hinata were both finished.

The blond was sorry that that had turned out such a lousy time for Hinata, who hadn't spoke (or had the chance to) since Sakura had showed up, but he was also happy that the pink-haired girl was actually trying to become a better kunoichi and was able to see past the appearance of her teammates and put the team before herself. She was obviously very proud of herself too.

"Wow, it's _this_ late already?" He said, taking a glance at the clock on the wall. "I promised jiji-san I'd meet him… five minutes ago!" He quickly got up and said goodbye to both girls. As he left, he whispered to Hinata: "Sorry about that. I promise I'll make it up to you with another meal someday."

The two kunoichi watched him go until he was gone from sight. "I guess I should be going too. See you around, Hinata." She had just exited Ichiraku's when a hand grabbed her shoulder, stopping her from going any further. It was, of course, the Hyuuga girl, still in Naruto's jacket, which he had forgotten.

"S-Sakura-san, p-please wait. I'd l-like to ask you s-something." She said, trying to control her stuttering.

Sakura moaned childishly. "Does it have to be now? Ino will be at Sasuke-kun's door in a while and I don't want to leave him alone with her…"

"It won't b-be l-long. P-please, I really n-need to know…" Hinata told the pinkette, tightening the hold on her shoulder.

The green eyed girl sighed in defeat. "Fine… what do you want to know, then?"

The shy girl looked around to make sure there was no one nearby. She then went back to facing Sakura with the most serious look she'd ever had in her whole life. "What was that about you abandoning Naruto-kun?"

* * *

**End of Chapter 4**

* * *

And so I leave you with yet another cliffhanger. This has also been my longest chapter yet. Remember to review!

**Next chapter: The C-rank Mission!**


	6. Mission to the Land of Waves

Hey everybody! I know you've all been waiting way too much time for updates, but please have patience for a little longer. I know it's illogical, but I tend to update faster during school time. (Nothing beats boredom during classes like a good writing session. Then again, maybe it's not that illogical...) On a completely unrelated topic, the hits have gone up from 8000 to 32000 since the last time I checked! Amazing! Over 200 reviews and 450 alerts! Thank you all for reading! Thank you even more for reviewing!

There are some boring things I should tell you before I start the actual chapter, though, please bare with me for just a little longer.

Poll's closed, and a new one has taken its place! Thanks to everyone who voted, I never expected over 100 votes! Please take your time to vote for the new one: **Should I do any secondary pairings in "The Third's Fourth Pupil"? **I am aware that there aren't many choices (I am lazy, remember?), so feel free to PM me if your favourite secondary pairing is not on the list. Remember to vote so as to make this story better for you!

Finally, thanks to everyone who reviewed! To all of those who didn't, please do, it won't take longer than a few seconds (If you're a fast typer) and it will get you all a faster update!

* * *

**Arc Two: Wave Country**

* * *

**Chapter 5: Mission to the Land of Waves**

* * *

"What was that about you abandoning Naruto-kun?"

Sakura broke free of Hinata's grasp and took a step back, her eyes widening. Whatever she'd been expecting to hear from the shy girl, it was certainly not that.

"How... How do you know of that?" The pinkette asked, terrified. She'd been hoping to keep that a secret from everyone.

"I..." Hinata blushed, looking slightly embarrassed, but quickly regained her composure. "I heard you t-two t-talking a-about it in t-the hospital. Answer the question please."

"I... I thought you were sleeping!" Sakura yelled, outraged. "How much did you hear?" She hoped that the other girl hadn't caught the part about leaving him to die.

"All I k-know is that you a-abandoned him, a-and he was d-devastated b-because of that. B-But I'd like to find out m-more." The Hyuga replied. Why couldn't she get that damn stuttering under control?

"I don't... you should talk to Naruto about that, not me. Goodbye." The Haruno turned around and meant to leave but was grabbed again. This time it was her wrist.

"It was you who abandoned him, not the other way around. Now tell me what happened." Hinata quietly demanded, surprising herself. The tone she'd used was the one her father would usually take to order his servants around... She quickly shook her head to get rid of such thoughts and focus on the matter at hands. For Sakura to try to run... it was doubtlessly worse than she'd expected.

"What do you have to do with it, anyway? Next time think twice before sticking your nose into other people's business!" The pink-haired girl tried to pull her arm back, but it was being held surprisingly strongly.

"I may b-be shy, Sakura-san, but I am not d-dumb. N-Naruto-kun was gone from the village for the past two years and he s-started acting strangely towards you the day before he left... the day after he was attacked by those three chunin. I'm sure it has something to do with that, and before you start questioning my involvement in all of that, p-please remember that it was _I_ who s-saved him! He'd be d-d-dead by now if I hadn't scared the thugs away and c-carried him all the way to the hospital!"

"I didn't... I didn't know that..." Sakura muttered, looking at the other girl with a surprised expression and ceasing her struggle.

Hinata closed her eyes for a second and took a deep breath. "I... I... Excuse m-me f-for my outburst, that wasn't l-like m-me at a-all..." She said, releasing Sakura. "I'm just... c-concerned about N-Naruto-kun... I c-care for him v-very d-deeply... B-but you're right, that _is_ b-between you and him and I p-promise I won't b-be s-so nosy anymore..."

"No..." The pink-haired girl said, putting a hand on Hinata's shoulder to stop her from leaving. "You're right, not me. You were involved in it too, and because you care about him you deserve to know. I'm just going to ask for two favours before I start. Is that alright?" The shy heiress nodded for her to continue. The Haruno shifted uneasily. "This is probably the thing I regret the most in my whole life. Naruto... he has always been a good friend, yet I was too blind to see it. He treated me like a princess and I did the exact opposite to him. I'd like you to promise you'll never tell this to anyone without my or Naruto's permission. He was nice enough to keep this a secret from everyone else, even though I don't deserve it."

"I p-promise." Hinata stuttered, already not liking where this was going.

"Thank you. Finally, I want to say that I will not ask for your acceptance or forgiveness. What I did was truly awful and you have every right to be angry at me, as had Naruto. All that I ask for is that you _try_ to understand my reasons and that I was nothing but a spoiled child back then... Naruto was kinder to me than he should've been and gave me a chance to prove that I've changed. I'll become a better girl and kunoichi and earn his friendship back!"

"I _will_ t-try."

"Thanks..." Sakura sighed. It was time she stopped stalling. "I... pretty much... I left him to die." Ignoring the utterly shocked look on Hinata's face, she forced herself to proceed, to relive for the second time the memories she'd been trying to suppress for the last two years. "He... he followed me and Sasuke-kun after class to... to ask me if I wanted him to walk me home... when those three shinobi showed up. They were about to hurt him when Sasuke-kun jumped in... But one of them k-kicked him in the chest and k-knocked him out... he started coughing out all this b-blood... Then they started beating up N-Naruto and there was even more b-blood everywhere and he asked me to help him and...And I didn't. I p-panicked, grabbed Sasuke-kun and took _him_ to the hospital, and left Naruto by himself. When I left the hospital after dropping Sasuke-kun off, I was afraid they'd come after me and my family if I t-talked to an adult, so... I... I... I just abandoned Naruto, tried to forget he ever existed... but then he showed up the next day... and I guess you know the rest." She had been facing the ground that whole time and finally took a glance at Hinata, who seemed to be deep in thought. Then again, her vision was kind of blurry because of the tears on her eyes.

"Sakura-san..." Hinata mumbled, her head bowed down so that the other girl couldn't read her face completely.

"I know, I'm a coward! I was horrible to him when we were younger, when all he wanted was some of my attention since he gave all of his to me and then I go and do something like this! I don't deserve his forgiveness, or yours, but I'll try my hardest to make sure he'll never regret it!" Sakura yelled. "I know how much you care about him, and although it's not worth much... I'm sorry. I understand if you don't forgive me and if you want to hit me or something..."

"S-Sakura-san... if N-Naruto-kun can f-forgive you, so can I." Hinata interrupted, obviously uncertain about her decision. "And if you m-manage to p-prove yourself to N-Naruto-kun, you will have p-proven yourself to m-me as well. B-but you m-must r-return the favours I'll b-be doing f-for you. P-please, do not t-tell N-Naruto-kun of my f-f-f-feelings for him. That is s-something I have t-to do m-myself."

Sakura nodded and both girls parted ways with no further words to each other. They had a lot on their minds already.

* * *

"I still don't understand how you do it!" Naruto shouted. Team 7 was on its way to the Academy, where the lower ranked missions were assigned, to complete their most recent D-rank. It was the ninth – maybe even tenth – time they had had to capture every genin's worst enemy: Tora, the Fire Daimyo's wife's cat. They had beaten their previous record... again, thanks to Hinata, who held the feline terror in her arms, petting it tenderly. "I don't!" The blond insisted, watching one of the scratches he had sustained from trying to copy the Hyuga girl heal right before everyone's eyes. Sasuke looked surprised as well and tried to hide his own injuries.

"If you m-mean it n-no harm, N-Naruto-kun, it's v-very easy t-to b-befriend an a-animal..." She said, tracing circles on the cat's head with her index finger.

"Alright, let me try again, then!" Naruto yelled determinedly, reaching out to touch the wicked beast. It reacted by jumping down to the ground, hissing loudly and then burying its sharp claws into his left leg. "OOOUUUCH!" He screamed, jumping on one foot as Tora got back to Hinata's waiting arms. "You little-"

"N-Naruto-kun! D-don't s-scare it!" The girl scolded, turning her back on him to protect the small animal and leaving the boy baffled.

"Wha-? I didn't do anything!" Tora happened to choose that precise moment to purr needlessly loudly, and the blond could swear that it'd stuck its tongue out at him. "That cat's out to get me!"

Its fat owner was already waiting when they got to the Academy. Hinata gave the poor feline – even Naruto knew it'd have rough days ahead – a last hug, pressing it gently against herself and making the knucklehead she had a crush on wish he was in the cat's shoes for a second, before handing it to the Daimyo's wife mouthing a "Sorry" at its pleading eyes.

"Very good job!" Iruka said after the woman and her pet had left, handing the children their cut of the payment. "I know that you already get most of them, but if you keep that up, you might just get _all_ of the Tora-catching missions in the future! No one else can catch it so fast!" The shy girl smiled hopefully at her former sensei; the two boys cursed him. "Now, I've got some more missions for you... let's see... babysitting an elder's grandson, shopping in the neighbouring village, helping out with the potato digging..."

"No!" Naruto burst out, scaring the hell out of both Hinata and Sasuke. "No! No! No! No, thank you! I've had enough of these crappy D-ranks! I want to do, you know, an actual mission! Find us a better one!"

"_I thought it was about time for this." _Kakashi, who had just returned after mysteriously disappearing for the mission (he didn't like Tora either), thought.

"You idiot! You are just a rookie!" Iruka replied, standing up and knocking over a few papers. The Hokage just sighed. "Everyone starts off with the simple duties and works their way up!" He then started a lecture on ninja ranks, ninja missions and how they worked. Before he could finish, however, the Hokage cut him short.

"Alright." He said, surprising the Academy teacher by agreeing to the request. "If you want it that much... I'll give you a C-rank mission. It's the protection of a certain individual."

Naruto rubbed his hands with a greedy look, wondering who their client could be. _"A Feudal Lord? A princess?"_

"Will you please step in?" The Hokage said.

One of the doors to the room opened, and a man entered. "What's this? They're all a bunch of super brats." He commented, taking a sip of nearly empty sake bottle. "Especially the shortest one with the super stupid-looking face. Are you really a ninja? Hey?" Naruto was annoyed by this but he kept his mouth shut. It would be better not to screw up this mission before it even started or he'd be put on D-ranks again for another month. "I'm the super expert bridge builder Tazuna. I expect you to provide me super protection until I get back to my country and complete the bridge."

* * *

About half an hour later, Team 7 was at the Main Gate, ready to leave on their mission. All that was missing... was their sensei.

"You're late!" Naruto yelled ten minutes later when Kakashi finally arrived.

"Sorry... I ran into a black cat on the way and had to take the long path around it." He replied apologetically.

As if Naruto wasn't annoyed enough already, Tazuna chose that moment to intervene. "Hey! Am I really going to be safe with this brat?"

"Hehe... Well, I'm a jounin, don't worry." Kakashi answered, making Naruto sweatdrop. Why was his sensei so intent on making him look like a complete goofball? "Anyway, we should get going."

They walked silently for another few hours after Naruto almost threw some kunai at both his teacher and his client, when Kakashi happened to notice an oddity in the road. _"I wonder if they'll notice it too."_ He thought, keeping his eye on the lonely puddle of water on the ground.

"K-Kakashi-sensei..." Hinata whispered. The genin all exchanged meaningful looks and gazed at him questioningly. "It hasn't r-rained in d-days..."

Satisfied with his team's perception abilities, the jounin gave them all an eye-smile. "I know. Just walk past it and pretend you haven't noticed anything. We may not be their actual targets." However, this theory was proven wrong. From the corner of his eye he saw two cloaked figures with Mist headbands rising from the puddle, but didn't react. He kept seemingly unsuspecting even when one of them took a long spiked chain from under his clothes and launched the other one towards him. He feigned surprise as he was trapped by it and let out a loud scream as they squeezed the log he had replaced himself with, causing it to be ripped into shreds.

"One down." One of the men said. The three genin, however, saw through their sensei's trick and managed to see him safely hidden in some bushes behind the enemy shinobi, ready to jump in if needed.

"_Alright!"_ Naruto thought, getting his hands into the familiar ram sign as his two opponents suddenly appeared behind him. _"This is my chance to prove to that old geezer that I'm the greatest ninja around!" _"**Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" **He produced five clones behind him to block the incoming attack. However, they were unnecessary as Sasuke took out a shuriken and used it to skilfully hit the chain linking the unknown ninjas' metal arms, throwing it against a tree and following with a nicely launched kunai right in the hole in the middle of the ninja star, pinning it onto the trunk and keeping them from moving. _"Gah! The teme stole my spotlight!"_

However, they weren't defeated yet. Both used their claws to break the chain and attempted to get past the group of blondes to attack Tazuna.

"**Fuuton: Tatsumaki Ken! **(Wind Style: Tornado Blades)" The clones yelled. The sharp blades of wind chakra hit one of the enemies right in the stomach, effectively stopping his attack. However, the second one managed to avoid the jutsu and continue towards the bridge builder, certain that the two boys could no longer interfere. He got in front of his target, raised his arm and... Was stopped by a palm to the stomach coming from the girl he hadn't even bothered to consider.

"Great job, Hinata-chan, you totally kicked his ass!" Naruto shouted, making the girl giggle and blush as he pumped a fist into the air.

The last thing the Mist nin felt before blacking out was the taste of blood in his mouth.

"_Phew, we're saved." _Tazuna thought with relief, as Kakashi joined the group and tied the two Mist ninja to a tree. "I've got to hand it to you kids; you're not half bad..."

"_Just as I thought." _Kakashi put the bingo book back into his pocket. "I know these shinobi." He stated, turning all attention to him. "They're the Demon Brothers, chunin from the Hidden Mist. These ninja are known to continue fighting no matter what. And, Tazuna-san... they were after you." A drop of sweat ran down the old man's forehead. "We haven't heard that there were shinobi after you. Our mission was simply to protect you from thieves and gangs. This has now become at least a B-rank mission. This was supposed to be simple protection until you completed the bridge." Tazuna hung his head in shame, but Kakashi hadn't finished his assessment of the situation yet. "If it was known that there were ninja after you, this mission would be set as the more expensive B-rank. I'm sure you had a reason, but it causes problems when you lie about the mission. We are now operating outside of our duties. And it might just be too much for us to handle..."

The three children stayed uncharacteristically silent as their sensei pondered.

"Alright... sensei..." Tazuna said. "I'll... I'll explain everything."

* * *

It had been long since Morino Ibiki had had so much fun with an interrogation. Most of his latest... clients had been too easy to crack, not giving him the chance of putting his more complex tortures into use. This one, however, was proving to be a challenge so far. He gazed once more at the shinobi strapped to the chair before him, his face bruised and bloody, his fake ANBU lion mask lying broken on the floor. He had a feeling he knew him from somewhere, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

"Speak." The special jounin ordered. "Who exactly are you and your friends? The sooner you tell me, the sooner your pain will end. All of yours."

He paused to hear muffled screams from two other rooms in the interrogation chambers, where "Cat" and "Eagle" were also being questioned.

"Screw you." Was what he got as a reply.

"Wrong answer." Ibiki said, taking a scroll from a table right next to him. Before he could proceed, however, one of the other doors burst open.

"Ibiki!" Yelled a purple-haired woman with no pupils on her brown eyes. She was wearing a beige trench coat with a tight fishnet shirt that barely covered her breasts underneath.

"Anko. I take it you've made progress with "Cat"."

"Sort of. Take a look at this." She said, holding out a clenched fist, which she opened to reveal a small object which looked like a coin. It was made of some grey metal, probably iron or tin, and about the size of an adult's thumb. The most interesting thing about it, however, was the symbol on the centre. It was the symbol of Konoha which they used to see on Leaf headbands... with a cross over it. "What do you think it means?"

"This is very interesting... where did you find it?" Ibiki asked, taking the object and examining the other side, which was the same as the one he'd seen.

"It was stuck to "Cat's" forehead with some sort of sealing jutsu, hidden beneath the mask. I managed to take it off using one of the basic seal breaker tags." Anko told her superior, looking at him for some kind of explanation.

All Ibiki did was turn back to the beaten shinobi on the chair and rip his hitai-te off. Just as he'd expected, he found the same object on his forehead. "Unfortunately, I don't know what this means... yet. But I will find out. Report this to Hokage-sama. I'll be here, working on this one." Anko nodded and left immediately, leaving the Head Interrogator and his victim alone again. "Looks like you've got some more explaining to do now." The former said matter-of-factly. "What's the meaning of all this?"

"Lion" spat some blood onto Ibiki's perfectly polished shoes. "Go to hell." He answered.

Ibiki could only smile. "Again, wrong answer. Let's see how you like this." He went back to the scroll and unsealed a hammer, four nails, two twenty-inch needles and a strange vial full of some green liquid. "This is going to be fun. For me, that is."

* * *

Meanwhile, Team 7 and Tazuna were being transported through a misty river in a canoe. "The Wave Country is at the base of the bridge." Tazuna said. "We should be seeing it soon." Sure enough, the bridge came into view moments later.

"Wow, it's huge..." Naruto whispered.

"We'll be there soon." The guide informed them. "Tazuna... it looks like we've avoided detection so far, but... just in case, we'll take the route that has vegetation. It will make it harder for them to spot us." Tazuna thanked the man as the canoe went through a tunnel. They stopped a few minutes later, next to a wooden shack. "This is it for me. Goodbye and good luck."

"Yeah." The bridge builder replied. "Super thanks. Alright, now get me home safely!"

"_How did I let myself get dragged into this?" _Kakashi thought. _"If we get attacked again it will surely not be a chunin, but jounin level..." _However, he had been proud of his students when they'd defeated two chunin in a matter of seconds... they were certainly much more skilled than your regular genin. He was pulled away from his thoughts as Naruto shouted "There!" and threw a kunai at a bush that had just moved. Out and onto Hinata's arms jumped a small white rabbit, scared to near death. The three genin were immediately on guard, confusing Tazuna. "Care to explain, Naruto?" The masked ninja said.

"This snow rabbit's white, yet it's spring." The blond said, as if that would wrap it up.

"So? What about it?" Tazuna asked, baffled.

"The snow rabbit changes colour based on the amount of sunlight." Naruto patiently explained. "White is its colour during the winter. This is a rabbit that's been kept in a cage for the purpose of body switching."

Tazuna seemed about to ask something else, but before he got the chance to, Kakashi put a hand on his head and forced it down. "Everyone, get down!" He ordered.

A huge sword suddenly came flying out of nowhere, passing over the ninja's heads and imbedding itself into a tree, shortly followed by a tall man jumping onto its handle. His back was turned to the Leaf shinobi, but they were able to see his face. Everything up to the eyes was covered in bandages. He had small, threatening, black eyes, a Mist headband wrapped around his forehead and spiky black hair.

"Well, well... if it isn't the Hidden Mist's missing-nin, Momochi Zabuza-kun." Kakashi said casually, as if greeting an old friend. He then turned to his students. "Everyone, step back. This one's on a whole other level. Against him... it will be a little tough... unless I do this." He took a hand to his hitai-te.

"You appear to be Sharingan no Kakashi." The rogue nin finally spoke. "Sorry but... the old man is mine."

"_Sharingan?" _Sasuke looked at his sensei suspiciously.

"Surround and protect Tazuna-san." He instructed. "Do not enter the fight. That's the teamwork here. Zabuza, first..." He slowly pulled the headband up, revealing a blood red eye with three tomoe around it and a big white scar crossing it. "... Fight me."

"Ah. I'm honoured." Zabuza said. "I already get to see the famous Sharingan. When I was a member of the Hidden Mist's assassination squad I kept a handbook which included information on you. It said you have copied over one thousand jutsu."

"N-Naruto-kun, you don't s-seem surprised..." Hinata stated. "D-did you know about this?"

"Of course!" The blond answered. "I studied famous ninja of the Leaf during my absence! That's why they call him... Sharingan no Kakashi, the copy-nin of the Leaf!"

"Now... let's end all of the talking." Zabuza cut in. "I have to kill the old man. But it seems... that I have to beat you first, Kakashi!" Using the tree as support he jumped away with incredible speed, taking his sword with him and reappearing on top of the water, each of his hands forming a seal. **"Ninpou: Kirigakure no Jutsu. **(Ninja Art: Hidden Mist Technique)" Then he was gone again, and the mist started getting thicker.

As the genin got ready for the worst, Zabuza's voice echoed through the area. "Eight choices... Liver. Lungs. Spine. Clavicle vein. Jugular. Brain. Kidneys. Heart. Which one should I go after?"

After a couple of minutes of silence, Hinata broke it, yelling "Sensei, behind you!" right in time for Kakashi to dodge the massive sword, which then vanished into the Mist just as it had appeared from it.

"_The Byakugan, uh?" _Kakashi thought, looking at the veins around the Hyuga's eyes. _"Apparently, it can see through the mist... this will come in very useful." _This time, Hinata didn't need to warn him. He felt a presence behind him and was able to create a water clone to be sliced in half instead of him. "Don't move!" He ordered from behind Zabuza, with a kunai to his neck. "It's over!" The missing-nin, however, laughed and appeared behind Kakashi again.

"I'm not that easy." Again, Zabuza slashed, much faster than he should've been able to, considering the sword's size, but the masked nin ducked and avoided the blow. Making use of the momentum, the former Mist ninja stuck his sword on the ground and used it as support to deliver a powerful roundhouse kick to his opponent's chest and launch him towards the water. He then used a shunshin to quickly move behind the still recovering copy-nin. "Hehe, fool. **Suiton: Suirou no Jutsu. **(Water Style: Water Prison Technique)"

"_Crap." _Kakashi thought. He had no time to react as the water around him rose and enveloped him in a sphere, trapping _and_ slowly drowning him. What made it worse was the fact that the genin had gone back into fighting stances instead of running away. "You idiots!" He shouted. "Run away! Zabuza's way out of your league, you have no chance of winning against him!"

"I'm sorry, Kakashi-sensei, but we can't." Naruto replied. "Remember what you told us?"

"In the ninja world, those who break the rules are trash." Sasuke followed.

"B-but those who a-abandon their c-comrades... a-are worse than t-trash!" Hinata finished.

At that moment, Kakashi couldn't help but to feel proud of his students, but that didn't last long. Pride wouldn't do them much if they ended up dead. Zabuza chuckled, amused by the foolishness of the genin who didn't even know who he was. Without giving the genin any time to react, he created a water clone that immediately charged against Sasuke. In a few seconds, he had him coughing blood under his foot.

"_Damn it!"_ Naruto thought, forming the Ram seal. **"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" **He created over twenty clones with confident smirks and had two of them rescue Sasuke while the rest jumped onto Zabuza. "No one messes with my team and gets away with it!"

"You can't seriously think you can defeat me by outnumbering me, brat." The ex-Mist shinobi dropped his sword and cracked his knuckles. "I won't even need the Kubikiri Houcho for this." At that moment he was engulfed in a wave of clones which completely covered him in orange jumpsuits and blond hair, delivering blows with deafening cries. For a moment, it seemed like they were actually winning, but all of a sudden their opponent broke free with enormous strength, sending all the bunshin flying. As they started hitting the ground and dispelling, one of them reached into his backpack.

"Catch this, Sasuke!" He took out something black and threw it to his teammate before anyone had the chance to figure out what it was.

Sasuke caught it with ease and showed it to everyone as he spoke. "Demon Wind Shuriken... Windmill of Shadows." He stated before launching it against the water clone.

"That won't work either." The real Zabuza informed them, but his eyes widened with surprise as the weapon turned in mid-air, going around his bunshin and towards him. _"So he was aiming for the real me all along, uh?" _"That's still not good enough, kid." He reached out with his unoccupied hand and grabbed the ninja star before it could harm him. Only then did he notice another one flying at him with deadly speed. "Kage Shuriken? (Shadow Shuriken)" _"A second one hidden in the shadow of the first..." _"Ha! Don't make me laugh!" He mocked as he jumped over the projectile. As he thought he had avoided their attack, however, he heard a "poof" behind him and turned his head just in time to see Hinata instead of the shuriken, with a kunai in each hand. _"The girl! But how..." _Just then, the Hinata next to Sasuke transformed into Naruto, as the real girl behind him threw her weapons.

Zabuza had only one option. He twisted his left arm behind his back in a strange angle and used the Fuuma Shuriken he was still holding to deflect the kunai that would've sunk into his flesh otherwise. But the genin weren't finished yet, and he caught sight of Sasuke moving his hands as if controlling an invisible puppet. _"He's got wires connected to his fingers! But what for...?" _He looked at Hinata again and saw the glint of the wires strapped to her arms and legs as she was pulled towards him by the Uchiha, ready to strike. He ducked, his left arm still behind his back. He could feel his body complain, but he'd been worse off if he'd stayed still. At least it'd worked: the girl had only managed to brush his shoulder.

"**Katon: Housenka no Jutsu! **(Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu)**"** Sasuke yelled.

"_What? Would he really harm his teammate just to get a shot at me?" _Zabuza thought as the dark-haired boy started spewing a multitude of fireballs at him, dispelling his distracted clone on the way. When he stood up straight, however, he saw no girl, only a blond knucklehead, doubtlessly a clone, smirking at him. _"Kawarimi?" _He quickly let go of the Fuuma Shuriken and got his arm back to normal, ignoring the nasty cracking sounds it made as it did so, to do a series of hand seals. **"Suiton: Suiryuuheki! **(Water Style: Water Release Wall)**"**

The water before him rose to form a protective wall, extinguishing the fireballs upon contact. Just when he thought it had ended, a few wind chakra-enhanced kunai crossed the barrier as if it wasn't even there. They had small red tags attached to them. _"Explosive tags! There's no way I can destroy or avoid them all with a single arm... Damn it!" _He thought as he was forced to let go of the Water Prison, releasing Kakashi, to jump back.

"Alright! Take that!" Naruto shouted. "The Team 7 Shadow Shuriken Destruction Combo!"

"What's with that obsession to name every move you come up with, loser?"

As if Zabuza wasn't angry enough by then, he got even angrier when he realized he'd been tricked: the tags hadn't gone off, the kids hadn't wanted to risk harming Kakashi. Plus, his right arm was slowly getting numb, probably due to the girl's light tap on his shoulder. Just because of that, he'd take care of her first.

He picked up his sword and appeared behind the group with a simple shunshin, charging at the unaware Hyuga. He swung his huge weapon at her with the intent of beheading her but he suddenly lost what little control he still had over the arm holding the Kubikiri Houcho. His grip on the handle loosened and the sword spun in his hand, causing him to hit the girl in the chest with the side of the weapon instead of cutting her head off, even if still with tremendous power. That caused her to let out a scream of pain and fly against a tree before falling to the ground, barely conscious.

"Hinata-chan!" Naruto yelled, terrified, as he rushed towards her.

"Oh, did I hurt your little girlfriend, gaki? I'll just finish her off really fast, so you don't have to worry. Then you can join her." Zabuza mocked.

"You bastard! I'm going to-"

"You're not going to do anything, Naruto." Kakashi interrupted. "You did enough. I'll take it from here." Kakashi and Zabuza then jumped away from the rest of Team 7 and started going through a complex series of handseals simultaneously. But Hinata's vision seemed to be getting blurry, and two rising water dragons striking at each other was the last thing she was able to see before it all went black.

* * *

Everything around her was blurry, but she could still make out an unmistakable orange figure sitting next to her. She blinked a couple of times to clear her vision. Sure enough, there was Naruto with his back turned to her. Had he stayed like that the whole time she'd been unconscious, silently watching over her like an older brother, or better yet, a _boyfriend_, would?

Blushing at the thought, she tried to stand up, but the moment she attempted to use her feet a burning wave of pain ran through her lower body and her legs failed, causing her to fall on her butt and one elbow and whimper, drawing Naruto's attention.

"Hinata-chan, you're awake!" He said. "You shouldn't try to stand up on your own, you took a nasty hit to your hips. Kakashi-sensei said that nothing's broken, but you should still use these for a while, as a precaution." He informed her, handing her a pair of crutches. "After you got knocked out, he got involved in a jutsu battle with Zabuza, and it was so awesome! There were these gigantic water dragons and then Kakashi-sensei did this Giant Vortex thingy and-"

"How l-long was I o-out?" Hinata asked, taking a couple of hesitant steps to try out her new crutches.

Naruto didn't seem upset at being interrupted. "Since yesterday, maybe about fifteen hours... It's ten in the morning now. Kakashi-sensei has been awake for a while now and he says he wants to see the team. You should change, I'll wait outside." He headed for the door, but suddenly stopped and turned around. "Hum... Do you need help?" Hinata turned red in the blink of an eye, but he only realized the implications of what he'd said a few seconds later and promptly added, even if maybe a little too late: "I could call Tsunami-san!"

"I t-think I c-can d-do i-it o-on my own, N-N-Naruto-kun..."

"Yeah... Yeah, of course, what was I thinking?" He quickly rushed out of the room, blushing a little himself.

* * *

"I have to admit that you're a tough one." Ibiki said, putting his beloved twenty-inch needles away. "But I'm tougher. And I've got all the time in the world." His captive looked up at him questioningly. "Just think about it... in a few hours it'll be night and me and the other interrogators will go home for some well deserved rest. Not you and your friends, though: you'll most likely be unable to sleep because of the pain. Then, early in the morning, a medic-nin will come over to see you. We don't want you dying to soon, now, do we? After that, we'll start all over again, as many times as it takes... until one of you breaks."

"Lion" audibly gulped, but kept a defiant face. "I'll never talk."

"Fine. You seem to be the leader of the group. Let's see how you like watching your subordinates suffer. Kashaku!" Ibiki called, clapping twice. At once another man entered the room, carrying a barely conscious "Eagle" on his shoulder and dropping him onto a chair next to his leader.

Kashaku then proceeded to take a crimson scroll from the depths of his long black cloak and unseal its contents: about two dozens of snowy white senbon on a metal pedestal. "These senbon were especially made to endure extremely high temperatures without melting or taking any damage at all." He explained. As if to exemplify, he performed a quick fire jutsu and spat fire onto the ninja needles for more than two minutes. "This should do."

He then coated his hands with chakra to protect them and grabbed one of the senbon, which were now red from the heat.

"Kushaku knows the human body better than anyone in Torture and Interrogation." Ibiki stated casually as said man pulled back "Eagle's" sleeve, exposing his arm. "He knows exactly which nerves to hit to cause the most pain." To show it was true, Kushaku struck a nerve right above the other ninja's wrist, making him let out a horrid scream that froze "Lion's" blood in his veins. "And right now..." Ibiki continued as another nerve was hit, this time a couple of inches above the elbow. "Eagle" cried even louder than before. "He's starting with the ones that hurt the less."

"Please! MAKE IT STOP!" The tortured shinobi pleaded, making "Lion" go deaf for a second. Kushaku got another needle ready, searching for the right spot to insert it, this time around the neck. "Eagle" was livid with horror. At least his uncontrolled shivering was making it harder for his interrogator to proceed.

"Alright, that's enough! Stop!" The rogue shinobi leader yelled, shooting his companion a doubtful look, to which he responded with a feeble nod. "I'll tell you everything..."

"Very well. Shinsou!" Ibiki called out. The kunoichi sent to replace Anko entered the room, dragging the last of the trio of criminals, "Cat", who appeared to have just lost consciousness.

"I think I overdid it." She said.

"It doesn't matter. "Lion" here is willing to cooperate." The Head Interrogator signalled for her to drop "Cat" and approach. "As for you..." he said, turning to "Lion". "We expect you to tell us everything about you and your pals, as well as those strange tokens and the reason you attacked Uzumaki Naruto, a loyal ninja of the Leaf. And remember..."

Shinsou made a few hand seals and whispered "**Ninpou: Tamashii wo Hanketsu**. (Ninja Art: Judgement of the Soul)" Thin wires erupted from the tips of her fingers and dug into "Lion's" skin, making him wince slightly in pain. "I have connection."

"... We'll know if you lie."

* * *

**End of Chapter 5**

* * *

The mystery deepens. Who are, after all, the three masked shinobi? What are they after? Why did they attack Naruto?

Keep an eye out for the next chapter, even though it's probably not there you'll find the answers!


	7. The Broken Tool

…

I'm actually a little embarrassed to come back after this long, but… well, better now than never, right?

I can't imagine how people will react to the return of this story after so much time. I only hope that those of you who enjoy it can forgive me for the absence. I don't really have anything else to say now, so on with the sixth chapter. I didn't take a single look at the manga to write this, so hopefully it won't be as similar as the previous chapter, which, by the way, I already adjusted a bit.

* * *

**Arc Two: Wave Country**

* * *

**Chapter 6: The Broken Tool**

* * *

"Very well… I… my name is Iwaro. Iwaro Suma. Those two are Noya Osewa and Nihe Fumase." "Lion", now known to be Iwaro, said, indicating "Eagle" and "Cat", respectively. Unbeknownst to the interrogators, he used his hands, tied behind his chair and out of sight, to go through an intricate sequence of hand signs. "Those tokens… it's how we recognize each other."

"What do you mean?" Kushaku asked. "Who are "each other", exactly?"

"We're all…" Iwaro pretended to wince in pain. He needed enough time to complete the signs without compromising any vital information. They wouldn't be able to discover anything from only their names, he was sure of that. "Sorry… I… I…"

"We have time." Shinsou said. "Just tell us everything you know."

Iwaro nodded and took a few deep breaths. "It's an organization…" He said before shutting his eyes and closing his mouth tightly, mimicking a look of deep agony.

Ibiki found that strange. What had happened to the tough guy he had interrogated earlier? He was suddenly so soft, so weak and vulnerable, wincing at the slightest touch, unable to speak an entire sentence without stopping… almost as if he was faking it… almost as if he was trying to… buy some time. "Behind the chair! He's preparing for a jutsu!"

The other interrogators paid little attention to the warning. "We sealed his chakra. What harm can it do?"

"He knows that! He wouldn't try something if it didn't do anything! Just stop him!" Ibiki commanded.

"Ha! It's too late now!" Iwaro replied, coming to the final seal of the sequence, the Tiger. "You may have sealed the chakra inside of my body, but what about the one on the outside? **Chakura Takuwaette Fuuin: Kai! **(Chakra Storing Seal: Release)" Two lines of black ink formed on the corners of his mouth and extended, going all the way to his nostrils, eyes and ears. It was a good think he'd come prepared for that eventuality. "Now let's see if I can break your seals with this new chakra!"

"Don't let him do it!" The Head Interrogator roared. As the three Leaf ninja jumped at the rogue, however a pulse of chakra coming from him, probably due to the forceful release of the chakra seals, sent them all flying across the room. They got up as fast as they could, but Iwaro had already moved, grabbing both of his teammates' heads.

"Noya… Nihe… I'm sorry. Can you ever forgive me?" He whispered.

Noya nodded solemny, and added "I'm sure he'd understand too."

A tear escaped Iwaro's right eye. "**Chisei Shippai Suru Fuuin: Ugokaseru. **(Brain Collapse Seal: Activate)" The two shinobi's eyes went blank and they slumped to the ground with weak smiles, happy to be dead. "And now… you!" He yelled, turning to face the interrogators. He ripped off his shirt to reveal his upper body and a glowing, complex seal where there hadn't been one before. "**Ikenie no Fuuin: Ningen no Bakudan! **(Sacrificial Seal: Human Bomb)"

* * *

"You'll be climbing trees." Kakashi said. "Without the use of your hands." Contrary to what he expected, none of the three genin looked any surprised. Maybe the recent realization that Zabuza was not dead after all had been all the surprise they could handle for a day. He made a brief pause so one of them could ask how to do it. Seeing as none did, he proceeded. "You have to gather your chakra in the bottom of your feet and use to adhere to and climb up a tree. This is something you can do once you can use your chakra well. The purpose of this training is to teach you how to control your chakra. To bring out the proper amount to the proper area. Like I said earlier, this is the most important aspect when using jutsu. The amount of chakra you need to climb the tree is small, but exact. Also, it is said that the bottom of the foot is the most difficult area to gather chakra. So basically… if you learn this control, you should be able to use any jutsu. Theoretically… Also, you'll need to maintain that same amount of chakra while climbing, for while on a battle, a ninja is always moving."

"That's way too easy, sensei! Can't we do anything a little more challenging?"

"Let's see you do it then, Naruto." The copy-nin instructed, knowing very well that a high chunin or low jonin like the boy would be able to walk up the tree in his sleep. "Now for you, Hinata." He said, finally taking his eyes off of Naruto, who was already standing upside down on the tallest branch. "You may find this a little harder than it's supposed to be because of the crutches, but don't give up and-" He was cut short as he saw the girl already joining Naruto on top of the tree, regardless of what he'd said. "Alright…" he mumbled with an eye-smile, scratching the back of his head. He should've seen that coming. Hyugas were, after all, masters of chakra control. It took Sasuke a couple of tries, but he too managed to complete the exercise relatively easily. With those three, he had no choice but to kick it up a notch. "Let's move on to water walking, then."

* * *

The Hokage arrived on the scene a couple of minutes after the explosion. The Interrogation Chambers were located underground, placed under an inhabited residence as a disguise. When they had exploded, the floor in the residence and a couple of walls had been destroyed as well, causing the whole building to collapse onto the only three interrogators that were there at the moment. Flames had arisen from the rubble and, through the vegetation, spread to some of the buildings around. Four shinobi were already trying to put out the fire with Suiton jutsu, while a bunch of others dug through the remains of the chambers in search of survivors.

Suddenly a hand emerged from a pile of debris, desperately trying to claw its way to the top. Three ninja immediately rushed to assist the owner of the hand, which turned out to be Ibiki, and pulled him up, along with Kushaku, who he was holding. That was, however, of no use, for the blank, empty eyes and the charred skin clearly indicated he had been long gone.

"He's dead." One of the ninja told the Head of Interrogation, not that it wasn't painfully obvious. "He must've been too close to the source of the explosion."

Ibiki responded by looking away with a thoughtful expression. To some, that attitude might have looked cold, pure indifference to the death of a friend and colleague, but Hiruzen knew better. He knew Ibiki wasn't one for mourning or crying over dead bodies. "Ninja should never show their emotions." He took that rule very seriously. Instead, he contemplated the many torture methods he knew of, trying to find the most suitable one to use on the one responsible for that, when they caught him. That was his way of avenging his comrade's death. It had been him, after all, that had ordered Kushaku and Shinsou to stop Iwaro. If it wasn't for that, maybe his colleague wouldn't have gotten so close… He should've predicted that... He had searched Iwaro's body for any possibly dangerous seals, but it appeared that the Sacrificial and Chakra Storing Seals had been invisible until the moment of their usage. As such, they hadn't felt the need to tie his fingers so as to prevent handseals, for the chakra supressing tags would supposedly be enough... How could he have overlooked such an obvious danger? It had been _his _fault...

"Ibiki." The Third called, snapping the man out of his thoughts. "I know you'd like to have a moment to yourself right now, but I need to know what you managed to find out from those three."

The scarred ninja looked down in shame. He was supposed to be the best at what he did, but he had failed to extract the information they needed, even losing a teammate in his attempt to. "I'm sorry, Hokage-sama, but we couldn't find out much." The Hokage motioned for him to continue. "Apart from those strange tokens, all we have is the fact that they are part of some kind of organization that ordered them to attack and kill Naruto Uzumaki and their names: Iwaro Suma, Noya Osewa and Nihe Fumase."

"Do you know anything else about that organization? The reason why they tried to murder Naruto, its allegiances, its purpose…"

"I'm sorry… but no."

"Very well." The Sandaime said. "It might be just the age talking, but those names sound familiar, somehow. I'll have them checked in our archive. Meanwhile, it is best if you go to the hospital and take some time to rest. There's nothing we can do while we don't get any new leads."

"Hai, Hokage-sama." Ibiki replied without much conviction as he vaguely stared at Shinsou, who was being helped out of the ruined Interrogation Chambers, fortunately relatively unharmed.

* * *

Naruto ducked, avoiding Hinata's palm strike, which instead hit Sasuke, who'd been trying to sneak up on him, on the shoulder. He went underwater and emerged a safe distance away, watching Sasuke and Hinata engaged in a taijutsu battle, all while channeling chakra to their feet to stand on the water.

The last few days in Nami no Kuni had been relatively peaceful for Team 7. While waiting for Zabuza to recover, Kakashi had trained Hinata and Sasuke to walk on water – Naruto already knew how – and since then they had often sparred on a nearby river, which helped improve their chakra reserves and control. Aside from that and, of course, guarding the bridge, they didn't have much to do, really. They had visited the village a number of times and now understood Tazuna when he went on one of his many rants about how much people needed that "super bridge".

Despite the jyuuken strike to his shoulder, Sasuke was fast and was soon in control of the fight. Naruto got ready to jump in, but was stopped by his sensei's call.

"Alright, everybody, that's enough for today!" He shouted, never taking his eyes off of his perverted book.

"Aww, that's not fair, sensei! I was getting ready to jump in right now!"

The only answer Naruto got was an almost girlish giggle as Kakashi turned his back on him and walked away, followed by the panting Sasuke and Hinata. The angry Jinchuuriki immediately came up with a devious plan to get back at the masked nin and walked back to the house with a mischievous smile.

* * *

Kakashi opened his eyes to the sound of a few impatient knocks on his door and realized he was lying on the bloodstained ground, flat on his back. His face felt wet and he soon noticed that both of his masks were drenched with blood, which he figured had come from his nose.

Then it all became clear to him. He had wanted to go to his room after dinner to continue reading his treasured Icha Icha book, but as soon as he opened the door he'd found himself facing a girl. A blonde, blue-eyed, beautiful, busty, _totally naked_ girl, calling out for him huskily, in the most sensual way he could imagine. To no surprise he'd promptly fainted with a titanic nosebleed, but not before hearing the girl laugh at him with Naruto's voice.

He quickly stood up and opened the door, finding Naruto on the other side, a nervous look on his face. "Sensei, you're finally up!" he said. Maybe that prank hadn't been such a good idea. "Quickly, you have to come see this!" He led his teacher downstairs and into the kitchen, where his two teammates, Tazuna and his family were all waiting for him, and pointed towards the counter, behind which were two severely beaten up men, tied up and unconscious. "They barged in while you were asleep and tried to take Inari as hostage. I don't think they're shinobi or anything, just a couple of hired thugs, and me, Hinata-chan and Sasuke didn't have a very hard time taking care of them. But then it hit me: if Gato sent these men to kidnap Tazuna's family, then that must mean…"

"… They're attacking the bridge today." Kakashi completed. "You're probably right, Naruto."

"We should hurry then! The workers might be in trouble!" Sasuke intervened. "Me and Naruto will carry Tazuna-san. We have to get to the bridge now!"

* * *

Zabuza stood next to one of the many corpses now lying on the unfinished bridge, his eyes scanning his surroundings thoroughly. He had brutally murdered everyone there, but there was no sign of his actual target, Tazuna. He had been waiting for him to arrive for quite some time and was beginning to think he wouldn't show up. Just when he'd decided to take Haku and possibly burn the whole village to the ground to find him, he was greeted by Kakashi with a fist to the face, which he had been too distracted to dodge. The vicious blow sent him flying back a few feet, but he quickly recovered and faced his opponent with a sadistic smile hidden by his bandages.

"I was beginning to think you wouldn't show up."

Kakashi scratched the back of his head and replied calmly, as if making up an excuse for his students. "I tend to be a little late now and then. I thought you'd rather fight than listen to me, though."

"Yes. Shall we get started, then?"

Kakashi darted forward as a response, hoping to catch Zabuza unprepared like he had seconds before, but that time he was not so lucky. The Demon of the Mist saw it coming and put his crossed arms in front of his face protectively, blocking the copy-nin's punch. He put some distance between them with a quick hop backwards and unsheathed the Kubikiri Houcho, anxious to coat the ridiculously long sword with the blood of his enemies. His eyes drifted to the sharp blade for only a fraction of a second, but when he looked back at Kakashi, he had been joined by one blond genin.

"Naruto, are you insane? You'll get yourself killed! Besides, Tazuna needs protection!" Kakashi yelled at his student.

"I think Sasuke and Hinata-chan are more than capable of handling Tazuna by themselves, sensei." Naruto replied. "And I've always wanted to test myself against a powerful missing-nin."

"Don't you get it, Naruto? This isn't a simple training exercise like the bell test! This ninja is your enemy, he'll murder you if he gets the chan-"

"Ha! I like this pupil of yours, Kakashi!" Zabuza said before the one-eyed jonin could go any further. "The kid's got spunk! I think I'll enjoy killing him." He then raised one hand above his head, the index and middle fingers extended, and intoned: **"Ninpou: Kirigakure no Jutsu!" **Just like last time, a thick mist descended upon the bridge, severely limiting the Leaf ninjas' vision. Zabuza went around Naruto without making a sound and threw a couple of kunai and a shuriken, perfectly aimed at the kid's back.

He didn't even need to turn around. **"Fuuton: Kaze Kodo! **(Air Style: Wind Pulse)" Not only did the wind throw the oncoming projectiles off course, it also pushed the mist aside long enough for Naruto to catch a glimpse of his opponent. Remembering all the times he had fought Wolf under sight-altering genjutsu, he smirked and darted towards the giant sword. Zabuza swung it horizontally, hoping to separate Naruto's head from the rest of his body, but was too slow to actually hit the Jinchuuriki, who jumped to avoid the blow and landed on the Kubikiri Houcho with perfect balance. He ran along the sword before Zabuza could lower it and delivered a powerful roundhouse kick to the ex-Mist nin's face, who didn't even flinch. Ignoring what was nothing but a mere sting on his cheek, he grabbed the genin's leg and slammed him fiercely on the ground. Before he could cut him in half, however, he was forced to retreat because of a fireball from Kakashi, who had jumped in to help his student.

Naruto got up just in time to see Zabuza vanishing into the mist again. He knew he couldn't beat him in a game of stealth, especially not in that mist. _"Rule number one:" _Lion had always told him, _"Never let your opponent choose the battlefield."_ But since the beginning had that rule been broken.

Sensing a presence behind him, he promptly turned around, his hands forming the Boar seal. "**Doton:** **Mugoi Keiri**! (Earth Style: Merciless Executioner)" He shouted, forcing dozens of two feet long earth spikes to emerge from the ground and shoot towards what he soon found out to be just a water clone. The real Zabuza had snuck up behind him, sword raised and ready to slash, but was again stopped by Kakashi, who shot out of the mist with one leg stretched out, vaguely resembling one Maito Gai's Dynamic Entry, and buried his foot on the rogue nin's stomach. Zabuza doubled over in pain long enough for Naruto to realize what was going on, turn around and hit him with a nasty uppercut. However, that Zabuza too dissolved into water. The blond genin looked around nervously, his head swinging quickly in every direction, trying to predict the spot his enemy would strike from next.

"_Always remain calm! You're twice as likely to make a mistake if you let your nerves get to you!" _Lion's voice seemed to echo in his head. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. A sound similar to a feather falling on cotton from behind him caught his attention and he was able to spin in his spot and take out another of Zabuza's clones with a kunai.

"Over there." Kakashi whispered to him, not daring to hold out a finger to point. His eyes, however, told Naruto everything he needed to know.

"**Suiton: Suigadan! **(Water Style: Water Fang Bullet)" He shouted, watching the result of his technique disappear into the mist shortly after. "Did I hit him?" He asked his sensei, who silenced him with a finger. Then, faster than what Naruto could follow, he had turned around and blocked the Kubikiri Houcho's downward slash with the metal plates on the back of his gloves and pushed Zabuza back.

"**Fuuton: Kaze Kodo!" **The copy-nin yelled the name of his student's original technique to push back the mist once more so Zabuza couldn't hide.

"**Doton: Doryuuheki! **(Earth Style: Earth Release Wall)" Naruto created a thick wall of stone behind the rogue-nin and quickly followed with a shout of **"Doton: Mugoi Keiri!**" The spikes he produced succeeded in surprising Zabuza, skewering both his arms before he could react and causing him to drop his sword. Another spike flew straight at his head, but that one he was able to dodge, and two more at each of his legs. The strength with which they hit him was enough to send him flying back against the wall, arms and legs outstretched and pierced through by the spikes now embedded into the wall.

"Hm. Nice move, kid." He casually complemented, as Naruto and Kakashi each prepared another technique to throw at him. "I'd never thought I'd have to call for Haku." Before Naruto could finish his hand seals, someone smashed onto his right side, throwing him against his sensei. He tried to get back up, but he suddenly felt a sharp pain on his knees and his legs buckled under his weight, causing him to fall back on the floor. He noticed two senbon needles sticking out of his bright orange pants and pulled them out with a slight wince of pain, regaining full control of his body. Without being able to do anything about it, however, his attacker, the mysterious hunter nin who had rescued Zabuza before, had shattered the rock spikes keeping the Demon of the Mist stuck and attempted to give him medical aid. Zabuza had refused, though, moving around like the injuries on his legs and arms were nothing, anxious to get back to the battle. "As much as I hate admitting, Haku…" He told his companion. "Kakashi is nearly on the same level as me, and I can't seem to fight him and the kid at the same time. Could you take care of that little nuisance and his teammates for me, please?" Haku nodded, happy to be of service to his master. "Don't kill _him_, though. I'll be back for _him_ later." He added with a smirk, before picking up his weapon, turning his attention back to Kakashi and running towards him, keeping him busy enough so he couldn't stop Haku from leading Naruto back to where Sasuke and Hinata were.

"_Sorry, Naruto." _Kakashi thought, forced to remain on the defensive because of the Kubikiri Houcho's incessant slashing and hacking. _"I'll be there to help as soon as possible. I just hope you three can hold your own meanwhile."_

* * *

Hinata and Sasuke had been next to Tazuna that whole time after promising Naruto they wouldn't leave to jump in. It was easy to tell, however, that neither of them was particularly satisfied with their situation. Thanks to Hinata's Byakugan, they'd been able to keep an eye on the entire battle and it had been very difficult to resist the impulse to just abandon the old man and go and help their teammate and sensei. After Kakashi had saved Naruto from certain decapitation at the hands of Zabuza, Sasuke had been livid with fear and Hinata had just looked ready to faint.

"Damn it!" After the intervention of the hunter nin and consequent release of Zabuza, Sasuke had been unable to hold his tongue any longer. "I don't care what the loser says, I'm going in!"

"B-but S-Sasuke-kun, N-Naruto-kun told us we s-should stay here and p-protect Tazuna-san n-no matter what happened…" Hinata weakly countered without much conviction. She too was afraid Naruto would get seriously hurt and despite the fact that she wouldn't be of much use against an A-rank missing-nin wanted to do whatever she could to assist him.

"So what? He'll never know we didn't if he dies!" He snapped, still a little hesitant to break the promise he'd made.

Before Hinata could think of a comeback, however, a strange object entered her Byakugan's field of vision. "S-Sasuke-kun, watch out!" She yelled, but Sasuke was too slow to dodge and a big ball of bright yellow and orange crashed against him with breathtaking force. "N-Naruto-kun!" She quickly ran up to her crush and checked for any injuries, oblivious to what was going on behind her.

"Hinata, Tazuna!" Sasuke shouted, throwing a kunai to deflect the two senbon that had been aimed at the bridge builder's neck. Hinata helped Naruto and Sasuke up and the three of them turned to face their new opponent.

"I do not wish to harm you." Haku said, stepping out of the mist, his voice deadly serious. "But I must carry out Zabuza-sama's orders. Please step back from Tazuna-san or I will be forced to take more drastic measures."

"Hmph!" Naruto snorted. "Don't be… such an arrogant BASTARD!" He yelled furiously, darting forward with his fist clenched and arm stretched out, only to be stopped when a number of senbon found their way to his chest and arms.

"You three are no match for me." Haku continued, his voice completely drained if any emotion. "I trained under Zabuza-sama for most of my life and possess a deadly bloodline limit. How can you hope to compete?" As he said this, though, Naruto burst into smoke right in front of his eyes. _"Shadow clones?"_

"Take that!" He announced from behind the ice-user, hitting him in the back of a head with a powerful punch.

Despite falling face first to the floor, Haku didn't seem angry or bothered by the hit he'd taken, only sad. "I see. You leave me no other choice." In the blink of an eye, Haku seemed to vanish from sight, only to reappear seconds later behind Sasuke and viciously kick him in the back.

"_He's fast!"_

Without giving the astonished genin time to react he moved on to Hinata, who, taken by surprise, could only throw a sloppy palm strike which Haku easily avoided, countering with a couple of punches to the stomach that sent the girl tumbling back. Naruto moved in to punch Haku again, but he ducked under the boy's fist and swept his legs with one of his own.

"**Katon: Gokakyo no Jutsu! **(Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique)"

Haku's eyes widened at the unexpected use of elemental jutsu from yet another one of Kakashi's students, supposed to be only mere genin. **"Suiton: Suiryuuheki! **(Water Style: Water Release Wall)" He quickly created a defensive wall of water that easily put out the fire, then burst through it to deliver a quick elbow strike to the genin on the other the corner of his eye, he saw Naruto once more moving in for a punch and held out his hand to block it, but before Naruto even reached him, he lost all feeling on his arm, which dropped uselessly, allowing the blond's punch to connect with his face, nearly breaking his nose. "I see." He said, looking back at Hinata, who had been responsible for the numbness on his arm. "A Hyuga. This _could_ complicate things. I apologize." He then ran towards her as fast as he possibly could and caught one of her hands in his, signing with the other one. **"Hijutsu: Sensatsu Suisho. **(Secret Technique: A Thousand Needles of Death)"

* * *

"**Katon: Hosenka no Jutsu! **(Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Technique)" Kakashi shouted, shooting a myriad of small fireballs at Zabuza. The latter was able to block most of them with his enormous sword and dodge the rest, but the copy-nin had taken that time to move forward and surprise Zabuza with a kick to the chest. Just as he was about to press further, he heard a familiar feminine scream in the distance. _"Hinata! Kami, I hope nothing too serious happened to her!"_ He was forced out of his thoughts when Zabuza attempted to bisect him once more and he had to jump back to avoid it, signing in the meantime. _"I'm sorry, but until I'm done here, there's nothing I can do for you guys."_

* * *

"Hinata-chan! HINATA-CHAN!"

"She's not breathing and there's no pulse, Naruto. I'm sorry."

"NO! SHE IS NOT DEAD! HINATA! SHE IS NOT DEAD!"

Haku watched the scene unfolding in front of him with a sad look in his eyes. "You had been warned of what could happen if you did not step aside. If it's any comfort, she died in battle, like a true ninja."

"SHE IS NOT DEAD!" Naruto shot back, but he was quickly silenced by a slap… from Sasuke.

"Focus, Naruto! There's nothing we can do for her right now and we've still got a mission to see through! Do you want her to have died for nothing?" He too was saddened by the loss of his teammate, but Naruto had known her for longer and it was his job to be the voice of reason. There would be time to mourn later. First came the mission… and revenge.

"You… You're right… But Hinata-chan…" It was all too confusing for Naruto. Hinata couldn't be dead. She simply couldn't. His first real friend… The one who had always supported him and been by his side… She would never be there for him anymore… He would never fight by her side again, or hear her talk, or laugh, or see the blush on her face ever again… It all seemed unreal, impossible… How could she be gone? But she was, she was dead… Dead before she could accomplish any of her dreams, before getting acknowledged by her family… He didn't know if he should feel heartbroken or maddened with rage… Before he could sort out his feelings, the wrath and agony boiling inside him, however, Haku spoke up once more.

"I'm sorry for your teammate, but unless you wish to join her, you should step back while you still can."

Naruto's eyes immediately shot open, even if he hadn't realized he had closed them, and he gazed at Haku, an imperceptible hint of red flashing in the deep blue of his eyes, before vanishing as fast as it had come. He also had a very strange feeling on his belly, like something stirring within his stomach, but it went away after a while and he shrugged it off. "GAAAAH!" He blasted off with newfound strength, slamming into the other boy and burying his fists into every part of Haku's body he could reach. He soon forgot to keep them clenched and clawed his way through Haku's clothes and skin, leaving deep gashes from which blood poured out, staining both his jumpsuit and Haku's kimono, until, with a bone shattering kick, he sent the ice-user against a pile of supply boxes, breaking them and scattering their contents all over the floor.

Haku shakily got up and cleaned the blood dripping from the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand. "Just remember, it was you who forced me to do this. **Hijutsu: Makyo Hyosho! **(Secret Technique: Crystal Ice Mirrors)" A dome of twenty-one ice mirrors instantly sprung up around Naruto and Sasuke, Haku's reflection in every single one of them. "I'm sorry it has to end like this."

All the Hakus jumped out of their respective mirrors at unbelievable speed, even greater than before, and bombarded Naruto and Sasuke with several attacks, slashing with kunai and making pin cushions out of them with senbon.

"_His speed has at least doubled! There's no way we can even _attempt_ to keep up with him like this! We need to get out of here before we get killed!" _Half-knowing that it wouldn't work, Naruto tried running out of the dome of mirrors anyway, only for Haku to jump out of his mirror and kick him back towards the centre every time he tried. _"Alright, time for plan B." _Again he ran off towards the edge of the dome, but before Haku stopped him again, he changed course and aimed a punch at a mirror.

It didn't even crack.

"It's useless to fight back. My Crystal Ice Mirrors are completely indestructible. Not even Zabuza-sama's Kubikiri Houcho can cut through them." Haku informed the angry genin.

"We'll see about that! **Katon: Gokakyo no Jutsu!" **Sasuke shouted, exhaling the biggest fireball he could muster in hopes of melting the mirrors. However, the fire just crashed against the ice and died, not making any visible damage. "Damn… Naruto!"

Naruto nodded, knowing what Sasuke meant. "**Fuuton: Nenshou Kumo! **(Air Style: Combustion Cloud)"

"**Katon: Gokakyo no Jutsu!"**

"**Kumiawase Fuuton to Katon: Jigoku Hidama! **(Air Style and Fire Style Combination: Hell Fireball)" They both intoned, creating a fireball easily five times the size of the previous one, and much hotter too. That time around, though, the fireball was able to melt the edges of the mirror, but Haku quickly repaired them at the cost of an insignificant amount of chakra.

"We don't know any better fire techniques… What now?" Sasuke asked Naruto.

"If fire didn't work, maybe explosions will… I think I have a few explosive tags in my pouch… Think you can cover my back while I place them?"

"Sure. Just hurry up."

* * *

"**Katon: Hosenka Tsubameki! **(Fire Style: Phoenix Sage Flower Nail Crimson)" Kakashi yelled, launching dozens of fire covered shuriken at Zabuza, a technique he had learned from the Third himself.

"**Suiton: Haran Bansho! **(Water Style: Stormy Blockade)" Zabuza countered, causing a massive waterfall to descend upon Kakashi and extinguish the fire in the shuriken before they could've gone too far.

Kakashi jumped back before he got crushed, panting slightly. His chakra, while still a reasonable amount, was depleting a lot faster than he was comfortable with, but he could tell Zabuza was in the same situation. Just then, the copy ninja heard a series of explosions coming from the spot his genin were still fighting Haku. With renewed determination, he pushed forward. **"Raiton: Kangekiha! **(Lightning Style: Wave of Inspiration)" He shouted, thunderbolts being released from his hands into the water, hoping to electrocute Zabuza.

* * *

"Damn! What's wrong with this seal?" The explosion tags Naruto kept in his pocket had been some he'd been studying and tampering with, not yet ready to put to use. He had had no other choice, and so far they'd worked relatively well, but that one tag was stubbornly refusing to go off.

"Hurry up, Naruto!"

"I'll just take a couple of seconds, Sasuke! Hold on!"

Sasuke wasn't having an easy time trying to stop the senbon Haku kept throwing incessantly from hitting Naruto, even with the bloodline limit he'd just awakened, the Sharingan. His Sharingan had activated from the need he felt to protect Naruto while the latter positioned his tags and it had definitely given him an edge. He'd been able to block all the senbon so far and even come close to hitting Haku, but it was surprisingly draining, especially in the state he was in, after using countless ninjutsu during the fight. Haku had stopped moving around a few seconds back, leading Sasuke to believe he was planning something. Unfortunately, all he could really do was keep focused and trust he would work it out when the time came.

Suddenly, Haku burst out of his mirrors again, aiming some more senbon at Naruto. Sasuke quickly jumped in front of them and skillfully deflected them all with a kunai, but something he caught a glimpse of out from the corner of his eye caught his attention. _"That was a clone?" _The real Haku was heading straight towards Naruto, whose attention was all on the tag that wouldn't work, and unleashed a bigger, deadlier wave of ninja needles. Sasuke tried throwing his kunai in the way, but only succeeded in hitting a few.

"Naruto!" He tried to warn him.

"Wait! I'm almost there!" The blond only stopped messing with the defective seal once he felt a very familiar warm liquid splatter onto his back. Sasuke had had no other choice than to throw himself in front of the senbon to save Naruto.

"Hmph… Be more careful… loser…" Sasuke muttered, before collapsing lifelessly onto the ground, much like Hinata had.

Once more, the entire world seemed to freeze for Naruto.

"_N-no… Not Sasuke too…" _A single tear was all that had time to escape his eye before he finally let his bottled up feelings get to him. All the frustration, all the pain, all the wrath finally surfaced, and something snapped inside of him. He suddenly felt the overwhelming urge to fight, to maim, to kill someone, to make someone pay for something he couldn't even remember anymore! All he felt was this insatiable bloodlust surging through his mind, this sudden burst of energy that made him feel more powerful than ever before. He let out a savage howl as red chakra erupted from every pore on his skin and enveloped his entire body, swirling around him in a chaotic spiral that went up to the heavens. Next thing he knew, he was shoving a bloody and battered Haku through one of his ice mirrors, shattering it with ridiculous ease. He could taste the other boy's blood on his teeth, and it felt so damn good! He grabbed Haku's neck and smashed his head against the concrete of the bridge more times than he could count, taking incredible pleasure in listening to the sickening crunches, before sitting on top of the injured boy and repeatedly punching and clawing his face, his fake hunter nin mask long gone. As he got ready to finally end Haku's life, however, something surprised him enough to actually snap him out of his maniac frenzy for a second. Haku was _smiling._

"So that's how it was…" He whispered, unable to talk any louder than that. "In the end… I was too weak to serve Zabuza-sama… Kill me, Naruto-kun."

Naruto's confusion at the boy's statement was of short duration and he happily took the sharpest kunai he had and raised it well above his head, mentally smiling at the thought of plunging it deep inside the ice-user's heart, but something inside him stopped his hand from coming down.

"Come on… Naruto-kun… Kill me…" Haku pleaded. "Don't you remember… ugh… what I did to your friends?"

Suddenly, the still, bloody, lifeless bodies of Uchiha Sasuke and Hyuga Hinata came rushing back to Naruto's memory, accompanied by a new wave of rage and anger at the boy lying under him. His hand trembled, seemingly back to life, and Haku closed his eyes in expectation, welcoming the blow that would end his miserable life of failure. He was counting on feeling his own blood splash across his face, but what actually did was somewhat different. And there was no pain. He opened his eyes to find it was Naruto's tears.

"Why…?" The blond muttered, the frustration and disappointment evident on every syllable he painfully uttered. "WHY CAN'T I KILL YOU?" He brought down his clenched fist and Haku winced, but the punch was never meant for him in the first place. He looked left and saw the cracks Naruto had made in the ground, the red chakra seeping back inside him. "You killed my teammates… my friends… so why can't I kill you?" But Haku didn't understand either. "Why do you want to die so badly?"

Haku chuckled. So that was what it was all about. "I have no purpose anymore." He simply said. "My only purpose in life was to serve Zabuza-sama… to be his loyal weapon… that was everything I ever did, and I thought I did so well, but now… I find out I'm nothing but a big failure…"

Naruto punched him with his bloody hand, the one he'd smashed on the ground, not as fiercely as before, but enough to still hurt. "Stop talking shit."

Haku blinked twice. "I'm afraid I don't understand, Naruto-kun… I'm a fai-" This earned him another punch.

"I said stop talking shit!" Naruto screamed. "Losing once does _not_ make you a failure do you understand? What losing once and giving up makes you is a coward!"

Haku shook his head sadly. "I am of no further use to Zabuza-sama. I am trash now, a broken tool." Another punch.

"People aren't tools either! If that's all he sees you as, then he's a no good son of a-" This time, it was Naruto's turn to be punched. He looked at Haku, surprised he still had the strength to do so.

"Don't… Don't talk about Zabuza-sama like that… He found me… and took me in and gave me a purpose! Without him, I wouldn't be anything… He made me what I am today… If I can't repay him for all the kindness he showed me, then I might as well be dead!"

"Don't be so quick to throw away your own life! That's a coward's attitude! You've got to pick yourself up and learn to live with your mistakes and failures! Just because you failed him this once, does it mean you will never be of use to him again in the future?"

"I am too weak…"

"THEN GET STRONGER DAMMIT!" Naruto yelled, unable to control himself. "Enough people have died today… If killing you would bring Sasuke and Hinata-chan back, you would already be dead… But it doesn't, and I can't… I won't kill you too… Grow up! Train! Get stronger! Work hard to accomplish your dreams! Those two will never have the chance to, but you still can and I won't just sit here and watch you waste that golden opportunity!"

"I… I can't…"

"Then you don't deserve Zabuza." Naruto said, making Haku's eyes widen. "He may have no use for a tool that occasionally misses… But no ninja would ever want a kunai that gave up and turned around!"

"I didn't…!"

"Yes. You did. You gave up on him and, most importantly, on yourself! You aren't worthy of him!" This silenced Haku for a few seconds.

"Why… Why are _you_ so strong, Naruto-kun?" Haku asked, taking Naruto by surprise at the sudden change in topic.

At first, he didn't quite know what to answer, but then he remembered something the Third had once told him about the Will of Fire… and it came to him. "I'm strong because I fight… to protect those that are precious to me." He took a quick glance at Sasuke and Hinata, tears running down his cheeks. "So in a way… I am a failure too."

Haku was completely astonished at the boy's words, his mouth slightly opened, forming a perfect "o". Then he smiled. "You are not, Naruto-kun… You-" Then his eyes widened as he sensed Zabuza's affliction. "I'm sorry… But I have to go… You were right. I can still be of use to him."

Then he vanished.

* * *

"I'm sorry, Zabuza. But this is the end for you." Kakashi said, taking one last look at his enemy, imprisoned in the fangs of his dog summons, as a Raikiri formed on his right hand. **"Raikiri! **(Lightning Blade)" He shouted, thrusting it forward.

"Zabuza-sama!"

Both ninja looked away from each other to see Haku speeding towards them, clearly intending to put himself in front of the attack meant for Zabuza. Before he could reach them, however, he was yanked back in mid-air, and an orange and yellow blur took his place.

"_Naruto!"_ Kakashi panicked. But it was too late to pull his arm back now and he was forced to watch helplessly as his lightning infused arm pierced through his only remaining student, sighing in relief when he burst into smoke. Zabuza looked as surprised as him.

"I told you I wouldn't let you throw your life away like that." The real Naruto said, crouching next to Haku. He hit him over the head with the blunt end of a kunai, rendering him unconscious.

The shadow clone had somewhat slowed down the Raikiri, but not stopped it completely, and it had still cut a pretty deep wound through Zabuza's chest, who, with both arms unable to move, was practically out of the battle as well.

"Well, well… I had heard great things about you, Zabuza, Demon of the Mist. I guess I was wrong. You couldn't even take down three kids and their idiot of a sensei. I'm… disappointed. But I'm glad to see that annoying kid of yours is down for the count." Gato, who had just arrived at the bridge accompanied by an army of his thugs and mercenaries, sighed. "It's not like I was going to pay you anyway, right? Kill him." He ordered.

As Zabuza asked Kakashi for a kunai and proceeded to go on a murderous rampage against Gato's small army, Haku woke up and gestured for Naruto to move closer, whispering something in his ear and falling to the ground again, conscious but utterly defeated. Naruto felt tears return to his eyes as he rushed back to his teammates. "Sasuke! Hinata-chan!"

* * *

The Demon of the Mist, one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist and A-ranked missing nin, Momochi Zabuza lay on the ground, not less than a dozen knives and swords sticking out of his body, with his loyal apprentice and weapon, Yuki Haku, by his side, crying his heart out.

"Do you… Do you really mean it, Zabuza-sama? Am I really more than a weapon to you?"

Zabuza chuckled. What difference did it make now? "You started out as one, kid… But you grew on me… soon, I started seeing you as something more… as… as…"

"A friend?" Haku completed, hopeful.

"Family." Zabuza corrected, bringing more tears to Haku's eyes.

"Why do you have to go, Zabuza-sama? Why can't you take me with you? What purpose do I have now?"

"Not where I'm going, kid. Not where I'm going… Haku… Listen closely." Zabuza knew he didn't have much time left. "You said your purpose was to serve me, to obey my every command… I won't leave you without a purpose… Here's my new… and final… order: Surrender. Surrender to the Leaf nin and let them escort you back to their village. You couldn't be in better company." He said, looking at Naruto and smiling. "Feel free to fail once in a while, but promise me you'll never give up… Make friends… maybe a family of your own… live your life and be happy. You have been chained to me long enough… I've brought you nothing but misery…"

"That… That's not true, Zabuza-sama! I never felt miserable when I was with you! Never!"

"Well…" He chuckled once more, for the last time. "That's one less regret I take to the grave, then… Thank you for everything… Haku…"

And so, the Demon of the Mist, one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist and A-ranked missing nin, Momochi Zabuza, passed away.

* * *

**End of Chapter 6**

* * *

Phew, that was a lot of work to write… But I think some parts came out especially well, like the Haku and Naruto conversation. What do _you_ think?

Finally, a little shout-out to my best friend, who selflessly (watch out for that sarcasm) took several hours of what little precious working time we had together to browse the entire fanfiction website for my username, which I did not feel like telling him, and read my stories, leaving the review he'd promised me two or three weeks later. To The Creator (you know who you are, even if you go by a different name now): thanks, but _get a life_. (Nah, just kidding, I really appreciate what you did.)

Ja ne.


	8. The Reasons for His Strength

I decided to move the author's notes section to the end of the story from now on, so you can skip directly to the fanfiction. I hope you enjoy the chapter!

* * *

**Arc Three: Hinata's Training**

* * *

**Chapter 7: ****The Reasons for His Strength**

* * *

Tazuna, Inari and Tsunami watched as the group of shinobi that had changed their lives, and those of the inhabitants of Wave Country, forever, left, accompanied by Haku, who had volunteered to become their prisoner.

"They _were_ heroes. I guess there _is_ such a thing, then." Inari said, happily, as his mother fought to hold back her tears. "By the way, gramps, have you thought of a name for the bridge yet?"

"Hmph. Of course." Tazuna said, smirking. "I've had a _super_ idea."

"Oh yeah? What is it, gramps?"

Tazuna smirked again, before taking one of his hands to his forehead and half stretching the other arm out, in an exaggerated "genius" pose. "I've thought about this super name: The Great Naruto Bridge."

The three of them continued to watch as the ninja vanished from sight behind a hill.

"I love it."

* * *

"Excuse me, Naruto-kun…" Haku said. The other ninja turned their heads to face him with mild curiosity. He had barely spoken through the entire journey, probably out of guilt for what he had done to the three genin. "How much farther is the Hidden Leaf Village?"

"The Gates should be coming into sight anytime now, actually." The blond answered. Sure enough, after less than five more minutes of travelling, the massive Gates of the Hidden Leaf became visible from amongst the trees. As they entered the village, Haku's head spun around in awe, trying to take in every little detail of his surroundings. His travels with Zabuza had taken him to many places, but he had never been in one of the Major Hidden Villages. Zabuza… simply thinking of his name made Haku want to cry again. However, he would not dishonor the only man who had ever cared for him by disobeying a direct order from him. That period of his life was gone and he should come to terms with that and try to find happiness somewhere else.

The group stopped outside a red, semi-spherical building with the kanji for "fire" painted on the outside of the top floor. "The Administrative Section of the Ninja Academy." Kakashi told Haku, seeing the questioning look on the boy's face. "It's also where the Hokage's office is located."

As they went in, Haku tried to imagine what the Hokage would be like. To be the leader of such a powerful village, he'd have to be truly fearful and terrifying, and he found himself shaking slightly in fear and anticipation. Nothing could have prepared him for the kind old man Naruto called "oji-san" and despite the fact that it was a complete lack of conduct, he just gawked at Hiruzen, his mouth ajar.

"Don't underestimate him." Kakashi whispered as Naruto excitedly told the Third of the events that had transpired during their mission. "He's still doubtlessly the strongest shinobi in the village."

"Now, now, Naruto, I'm sure I'll have time to listen to your story – and Kakashi's report – later, but duty comes first." He pointed at Haku with his pipe. "Who is that boy?"

"That's Yuki Haku, a rogue ninja from the Water Country, apprentice of former Swordsman of the Mist Momochi Zabuza and last known owner of the Hyouton bloodline limit, Hokage-sama." Kakashi promptly answered. "After the battle against Zabuza and himself, he volunteered to be taken prisoner."

"An ice-user, uh? Tell me, Haku-san, why did you let yourself be taken prisoner?" Sarutobi asked, never taking his eyes off of the boy.

"It was an order from my former master, Hokage-sama." He simply said. "He ordered me to surrender to Konohagakure so I wouldn't have to live the hard life of a missing-nin like him."

"I see. Sounds like he cared about you a lot." Hiruzen stated, bringing a soft smile to Haku's face.

"H-hai. He did."

"You must understand, however, Haku-san, that you are still a prisoner, a rogue ninja and a potential danger to this village and must as such be taken into custody."

"What?" Naruto yelled indignantly. "Oji-san! You can't do that! Haku came with us of his own free will! That's not fair! He wants to be a Konoha ninja, why does he have to be arrested?" This attitude surprised Haku. Even after all he had done to him, all the pain he'd caused, Naruto was still willing to stand up for him… But he couldn't figure out why.

"As a missing-nin he is officially our enemy, Naru-"

"E-excuse me, Hokage-sama…" Everyone in the room was completely astonished by hearing the shy Hinata daring to interrupt the Leader of Konohagakure, but none more so than herself, a tremendous blush beginning to form on her cheeks. "H-he had the chance t-to k-kill us, S-Sasuke-kun and m-me… but he only k-knocked us out… D-doesn't that c-count f-for anything?"

"Hn." Sasuke reluctantly added. "They're right."

Haku felt tears rush to his eyes, something that seemed to be turning into a rather common habit those days. He had severely injured the three of them… led two of them to believe he had killed one of their teammates… pushed Naruto into a mad rampage… but they were still defending him. Had they forgiven him so easily? How could that be?

"You have to understand, Naruto-kun, Sasuke-kun, Hinata-chan, that this is mandatory procedure." The Hokage explained, concealing a satisfied smile. "However, we in the Leaf Village are not needlessly cruel. Haku-san, unless you try to escape, you will be confined in an apartment rather than in a prison cell. You must stay inside at all times, but food and drink will be provided and your necessities taken care of. You will have to be interrogated about Zabuza, your kekkei genkai and everything else we can think of, but I can promise you that if you collaborate, you will not be harmed in any way. An ANBU member will escort you to your temporary residence." He said, signaling for one to come out of his hiding spot and lead Haku out of the room.

"I am very grateful to you, Hokage-sama." Haku said with a quick bow before he left. "I will do everything in my power to serve this village." Then he turned to the three genin and mouthed a silent "Thank you" before he was accompanied out of the Hokage's office by the ANBU with the bull mask.

"Now you can tell me what happened in Wave…"

* * *

Half an hour later, the three genin stepped out of the building. After giving his report to the Hokage, Kakashi had instantly vanished, probably off to read his smutty books. Sasuke said goodbye to his two teammates, saying that after that long, his room could probably use a good dusting.

"Yeah, I should probably go clean my house as well…" Naruto said sheepishly, scratching the back of his head. "But I don't really feel like it… Hey, Hinata-chan! How about you and me go for some ramen to celebrate our first A-ranked mission?"

"I… I'm s-sorry, N-Naruto-kun, b-but I can't…" She mumbled quietly, never taking her eyes off of the ground, unable to face her crush. "I… I have to… I have t-to g-go home…" She added before running off in the opposite direction with a bright blush, leaving Naruto to stare at her retreating form in confusion. It wasn't like Hinata at all to turn down a bowl of ramen with him. Was there something wrong with her?

* * *

Naruto woke up the following day with renewed strength and a cheerful mood. As a reward for successfully completing a high-ranked mission, the Hokage had given his team a few days off duty. Naruto looked around his room and sweatdropped. He had completely forgotten to clean it the day before… He shrugged his shoulders, not really in the mood for that at the moment, and stared at a picture of Team 7 he always kept on his drawer for a few seconds, smiling. Kakashi was rubbing his hair with one hand, with his Icha Icha book on the other one and an eye smile. He just stood there, annoyed, with his arms crossed, looking defiantly at his sensei. Left of him, Sasuke looked at the camera with an arrogant smirk and finally, on the other side, Hinata looked down with a blush and a smile, pressing her index fingers against each other.

About twenty minutes later, Naruto was all dressed up and ready to go and make the most out of his day. Despite being off duty, he decided he could use some training. His hadn't been on top of his game during the mission, which only served to remind him that despite all the training he had gone through, he still had near to none actual experience on the battlefield and could very easily slip up and make a mistake. He felt slightly disappointed to admit that he had been quite nervous to fight a well-known A-rank missing-nin and that had doubtlessly affected his performance. With these thoughts in mind, he headed for the training field where they had had the bell test.

When he got there, however, he was surprised to find he was not alone. A girl was sitting on one of the three logs, her back turned to him, shaking visibly.

"Hinata-chan?"

With a gasp, the girl suddenly turned around with a blush on her face. She had been crying, and there were tears still running down her cheeks. "N-Naruto-kun!" She hastily brought up her sleeve to wipe the tears off of her face, but it was too late. Naruto had already seen her cry. She cursed herself and her weakness.

"Hinata-chan, is everything alright?" He asked, concerned for his friend.

"Y-yes, I'm f-fine!" She desperately lied, turning her back on him again. She didn't want Naruto to see her like this, in her most vulnerable moment. It was their day off, so she didn't think anyone would come to train and find her there. She should've known better. She should've expected that from Naruto.

"You don't seem fine."

"I… I…" But Hinata couldn't think of anything else to say. She had always been a terrible liar.

"Come on, whatever it is, you can tell me." Naruto assured her, but got no response. He let the silence drag out for a couple of minutes while Hinata hiccupped and sobbed, then spoke again. "I'm not going anywhere until you speak to me. And that's a promise." He sat on the log on her left and, true to his word, stayed there for ten more minutes, until she decided to say something.

"I… I'm weak, N-Naruto-kun… I'm n-nothing b-but a burden t-to you, and S-Sasuke-kun, and s-sensei." She confessed, fearful that he would simply agree and leave her be.

"What? What on earth ever made you think that?" Naruto asked, honestly confused by her opinion about herself.

"It… It was d-during the m-mission… I b-barely ever did a-anything…" She explained, the memory of those moments depressing her further. "I let m-myself get hit b-by Z-Zabuza… m-my injuries held the t-team b-back during all our t-training sessions… I c-couldn't even do anything a-against Haku-san…" She held back a hiccup and continued. "B-but most importantly… I l-let you d-down, N-Naruto-kun, and the rest of the t-team… You shouldn't have needed t-to worry about m-me…" Naruto was at a loss for words. He couldn't think of anything to say to Hinata, so she continued. "I… I am n-nothing but a f-failure… f-father was right a-all along… I d-don't even know how I m-managed to g-graduate…"

"You were the highest scoring girl, Hinata-chan!"

"I… I don't k-know… All I ever d-did was hold you b-back…" She broke down into tears against her will again, unable to control herself in front of Naruto, of all people. Her weakness made her want to scream in frustration, but she knew she wouldn't be able to do even that. "W-when I g-graduated f-from the Academy… and a-after we p-passed the b-bell t-test with Kakashi-sensei… I d-didn't feel so useless… I s-started thinking m-maybe I was g-growing stronger, maybe I c-could become a d-decent kunoichi… B-but this mission m-made me realize I was b-being silly… fooling m-myself. F-F-Father…" Her voice faltered for a second after mentioning her father. "He was r-right all along… A f-failure, a shame, a weakling and a d-disgrace to the c-clan… That's who I always was, who I a-am now and who I'll always b-be, f-forever… There's n-no way for m-me to change… Maybe I should j-just g-give up on b-being a ninja…"

"Hinata-chan." Naruto said, dead serious, placing his two hands on her shoulders and turning her around to face him, staring directly at her tear filled eyes. "Listen to me very closely. I'm serious. Never give up. Never stop fighting. There will be those who try to bring down along the way, but never _ever_ do their work for them and lie down on the ground yourself, you hear me? I know that if you just keep trying, you'll be able to do great things! I-"

"B-but it's n-not that easy! It's n-not that easy, N-Naruto-kun…" She said, angrily at first, then sadly, remembering the events that had occurred the day before.

* * *

_Disappointed and angry at herself for having failed to be of any use during the mission, Hinata reluctantly refused Naruto's invitation for lunch, despite how much it pained her, thinking he wouldn't really enjoy hanging out with a loser such as her, and quickly headed home for some much needed rest._

_Reaching the Hyuga Compound within minutes, she hurriedly walked past the guards at the gates without even remembering to greet them, something very unusual for the young heiress, and climbed up the stairs to her room, but was met by one of her father's advisors, who had clearly been waiting for her to arrive, leaning against her door._

"_Hinata-_sama_." He spat the suffix with unnecessary disgust and contempt. "I have been awaiting you. Your honorable father wishes to see you in his study. I recommend you present yourself to him at once." After these words he quickly went away, as if the very presence of Hiashi's eldest daughter repulsed him._

_Hinata looked down in resignation. Her father had would certainly like to hear how his daughter's first C-rank mission had turned out. Silently cursing her bad luck, she had no choice but to walk back down the stairs and up to the door to the study, on which she knocked three times._

"_Enter." The usual emotionless voice of Hiashi Hyuga commanded, and she obeyed. For such a wealthy man, Hiashi's study wasn't exactly very large. Instead, it was a well lit, cozy, warm and small space with plain white walls and wooden flooring. He wasn't very given to decoration and, apart from some potted plants in the corners, which the servants tended to, there was no furniture in the room which was not of practical use to the clan leader. A desk behind which he sat, taking care of some paperwork, some file cabinets and lots of loaded bookshelves. There was, however something missing: regardless of how much one searched, there were no pictures of his daughters anywhere. "Ah, Hinata." He said, but there was no pleasure in his tone. "I wished to talk to you, as you are certainly aware of. Did you succeed on your first C-rank mission?"_

"_Y-yes, father." She said, then added more quietly. "B-but it was an A-rank…"_

"_What was that?" He asked, never taking his eyes of the document he was writing._

_Hinata gulped and explained. "D-due to u-unexpected events d-during the c-course of the mission, including the a-appearance of a r-renowned A-rank m-missing-nin, it was e-elevated to an A-rank…"_

_Hiashi raised one of his eyebrows, and Hinata was sufficiently perceptive to notice his slightly widening eyes. She had not witnessed such a reaction from her father for a long time. Whatever it was that he had been expecting, that had certainly not been it. And, for one moment, the girl allowed herself to hope. Maybe, just maybe, her father would be proud of her for completing an A-rank. Maybe he'd finally acknowledge her! Maybe he'd even praise her! Maybe he'd at last go back to the kind, caring, compassionate parent he had once been, before the untimely death of his wife. Her heart fluttered, but then he spoke the words that shattered her hopes._

"_Very well, then." He finally put down the papers he'd been working on, genuinely interested in what his daughter had to say, activated his doujutsu and leaned back on his seat. "I wish to hear all about your role in that mission, in detail, if you please." _

_Hinata felt her heart sink. Of course he wouldn't have left it at that, what had she been thinking? Despite the polite tone in his voice, that was anything but a simple request she could freely turn down if she so desired and so, under the scrutinous gaze of her father's Byakugan, she was forced to tell the story as she saw it: the hit she'd taken from Zabuza and the consequent injury, her inability in holding her own against Haku for more than mere minutes, the burden she'd been to her teammates. By the end of it all, she was making a gigantic effort not to cry as her father just stayed silently, doubtlessly going over what he'd just been told in his head._

_Finally, after what seemed like an eternity for Hinata, he produced a sound: a sad chuckle. "You know, my daughter… for one tiny, fleeting moment, I thought you would finally make me proud." Hinata sobbed. Each of his words hurt more than Haku's senbon had. "I see now that I was a fool, blinded by the forlorn hope that you had grown worthy of your great clan. I should not have been surprised that you were once again nothing more than a burden to those around you. Your younger sister, Hanabi, who is not even a genin yet, would have performed better on that mission." That last one had been worse than the slam from the Executioner's Blade. "Perhaps I _should_ consider making _her_ the heiress…" Hiashi then gave a resigned sigh. "You need more training, although I am not sure it will result in anything… You are dismissed."_

_To her credit, Hinata was able to keep her decorum until she walked out of her father's study, when she finally let her tears flow freely, much to her relief. Then, fearing another member of the clan would see her in that pitiful state, she ran and locked herself inside her private dojo, where she exerted herself to the point of unconsciousness, crying the entire time._

* * *

"It's n-not that e-easy…" Hinata repeated, the memory of those events bringing her even more pain.

Naruto looked worriedly at his friend. There was clearly something else there, something he wasn't aware of. "I know, Hinata-chan. Trust me, I know." He said reassuringly. "But I promise it will be much harder if you give up. I can see you're hurting and that you're not yet comfortable talking about it. I won't pressure you to tell me, but I want you to know that if you ever feel the need to, I'll always be here for you. I'm your friend and you can count on it, I'm giving you my word on it! And I-"

"You never go back on your word…" Hinata completed softly, her respect and admiration for the boy in front of her growing even more. "I g-guess I _can_ t-try…"

Naruto grinned. "Now _that's _more like it! I know exactly how difficult it can be, but I have full confidence in you, Hinata-chan! I'm sure you'll never let me down! You know…" He continued, a little hesitantly. "Before I became a genin, I sometimes considered simply quitting, too."

The girl was completely taken aback by his words. In her mind, she had placed Naruto on a pedestal, too often envisioning as some kind of superhero that always managed to overcome his hardships without ever feeling the need to turn back around and give up. But he was only human, she now told herself. Far from diminishing his accomplishments, however, it only made them that much more impressive, for the real strength, Hinata realized, lied not on not wanting to quit, but on managing to keep going when you did.

"Can I give you some advice?" Naruto asked, and she nodded. "It wasn't exactly a walk in the park, living while being hated by the majority of the village and… well, there were times I just wanted to run away, get as far from here as possible, make all the pain stop… Do you know what kept me here, Hinata-chan?" Unable to speak, she shook her head, now fully enthralled in the boy's tale. "Sarutobi-jiji. He was the only person in Konoha that showed any care and affection towards me and I drew strength from that fact to tell myself I couldn't just give up, for him. There were still moments, of course, when, after a particularly grueling day, my will seemed to falter, but somehow I still managed to push through, always thinking of him. Then something that I had never expected happened: Along came Iruka-sensei, who also became my friend, and Kakashi-sensei, and even that bastard Sasuke, I guess… And _you_, Hinata-chan. Suddenly, I found myself surrounded by more friends I could ever have dreamed of and my will and determination just got fiercer, stronger! And that's it, I guess… I think that what I'm trying to say is: I find my strength in my precious people… You just need to figure out where yours is, right?"

Hinata stared in amazement, not knowing Naruto could be so profound and sincere. She really wanted to answer "I draw my strength from _you_, Naruto-kun." But found herself unable to. Instead, she opted for: "I d-draw my s-strength from m-my friends t-too…"

He smiled. "See? I guess we have more in common than we thought! Hehe… But, hum, Hinata-chan…" He added, a little awkwardly. "I never really told anyone else this, and some of it is kind of personal… So I'd appreciate it if you didn't tell anyone…"

"D-don't worry, N-Naruto-kun…" Naruto had had enough confidence in her to entrust her with his personal secrets and she surely wasn't about to betray him. She couldn't even begin to think of disappointing him now. He was right! She couldn't, she _wouldn't_ give up that easily. So, in a bold move, she spoke, almost not stuttering at all. "N-Naruto-kun, would you please help me train?"

"Uh?" He grunted, surprised by her sudden request. "Hum, sure, I guess, but why don't you go talk to Kakashi-sensei or anything? He'd probably do a much better job than me…"

"These are a-also K-Kakashi-sensei's days off and I d-didn't want t-to b-bother him…" _"And I want to be around you…" _She thought, but did not dare say it out loud. "And s-since you were g-going to t-train anyway, I thought I might t-tag along, if it's n-not t-too much of a burden…"

"Nonsense! It's alright, Hinata-chan, training you sounds great! I'll teach you everything I know!" He yelled excitedly.

She giggled, smiling for the first time since the whole ordeal with her father, at his antics. "Hai, N-Naruto-sensei."

He seemed to enjoy being called that as he slowly pondered how they would begin their training. "Oh, I know! Let's spar!" His ANBU senseis had always sparred with him when they needed to check his abilities. It was a good way to measure Hinata's current skill level. She nodded, anxious to start her new training.

* * *

Half an hour of intense sparring later, Naruto finally decided he had collected all the information he needed and, panting slightly, signaled for a substantially more tired Hinata to stop. "That was great, Hinata-chan!" He praised, not knowing just how happy his words made her. "You actually tired me out a little…" He said, cleaning the sweat on his face with one of his sleeves. "So, I guess it's time to tell you what I thought."

Hinata nodded. "D-don't go easy on me, N-Naruto-kun. I want t-to know the truth, I can t-take it." She replied confidently, feeling much better since the talk with him.

"It wouldn't cross my mind, Hinata-chan." He winked at her, making her blush a little. "I know you can."

She gave him a warm and happy smile, glad that he was helping her out with her training. She had no doubt it would work. Perhaps she could prove herself to her father yet.

"Let's see, then." He said, sitting down on the ground. She copied him. "You use a taijutsu style exclusive to your clan, right? I'm not especially knowledgeable about it, but it seemed fine to me… If you had actually used chakra on your strikes I'd be a lot sorer right now… It's a deadly and efficient technique, but unfortunately I can't help you with it. You'll have to ask your family." At this statement, her smile turned into a split second frown, before she went back to her previous expression. However, Naruto noticed. "Your genjutsu abilities seem alright as well. You were able to break out of all the illusions I tried on you. I can teach you some if you want to, they're useful to cover your tracks or slightly disorient your opponent on the battlefield, but I'm afraid I don't know many, and none of them is straight out offensive. Your aim and overall weapon skills are flawless, but something made me curious, Hinata-chan. Why didn't you use any ninjutsu other than the Replacement Technique?" He had come at her with Shadow Clones and several weak Doton and Suiton, but not once had she responded in kind with a ninjutsu of her own.

At this, Hinata seemed to get embarrassed. "I… hum, I d-don't r-really know any n-ninjutsu apart from the b-basic Academy o-ones…" She said, fingers fidgeting. "M-my father f-focused mainly on our f-family's fighting s-style on our t-training sessions… He s-says I'm not a-allowed to learn any non-jyuuken jutsu until I f-fully master the G-Gentle Fist ones, b-but so f-far I've been u-unable to s-successfully utilize the m-most simple one, the Hakkesho Kaiten (Eight Trigrams Palm Rotation)… I d-don't know what I'm doing wrong…"

Naruto nodded, not really understanding the prohibition against elemental techniques, however. "Why don't you try using it now? Maybe I can help you with it…"

"A-alright…" She agreed, a little reluctantly, activating her Byakugan. She got into her stance and started readying her chakra for the technique. When she felt she had the necessary amount she started channeling it out of her tenketsu and spinning in the same spot, trying to create the spinning dome of chakra she was supposed to. **"Hakkesho Kaiten!" **She yelled, but the jutsu was not successful. Quick bursts of chakra erupted from her body and formed part of a shaky wall, but the flow ceased before she had even spun a complete 360 degrees. Seeing that it had not worked, she stopped her attempt, disappointed.

"I think I see what the problem is." Naruto said, still looking attentively at the area where the dome had been supposed to appear. "Try it again, but without spinning, please." And she did. Again chakra poured out of her body, but some seconds later it was gone. "Just as I thought. Tell me, Hinata-chan: Do the Gentle Fist strikes require a lot of chakra?"

Hinata shook her head. "N-no. The essential of the jyuuken is the p-precision. A-as long as the b-blows are accurate enough, a s-small amount of chakra is all that is n-needed to cause the d-desired effects…"

"I see. So here's the problem, Hinata-chan: Your chakra control is awesome, much better than mine, I bet, but you are not accustomed to using it in bigger quantities. All you ever needed your chakra for is your taijutsu and all the Academy techniques, both of which require only a small amount. Consequently, I assume your reserves are not very big either. So, when you try to perform the Kaiten, which uses up a considerably superior amount of chakra than you are used to, seeing as it requires you to channel it through your entire body instead of a specific part, the effort you make to get it all out messes up your control and you are unable to do it correctly." He informed, again surprising Hinata with the observations and deductions which had most likely led him to a correct conclusion. It looked like Naruto was more intelligent than everyone gave him credit for, too.

"I u-understand." She mumbled, trying not to let herself get sad because of the news. "What c-can I d-do to improve that?"

"Well, Kakashi-sensei's spars on water do help improve your reserves, but I don't think they'll be enough for this specific situation… and this is where I believe your father is wrong." Hinata's eyes widened. Was that even _possible_? "The only way I can think of to get you to get to the necessary chakra levels, at least, is to improve them through the usage of lower level techniques, such as D-rank elemental jutsu."

Hinata gulped. Learning elemental jutsu was going straight against her father's orders, but why did the thought of doing so tempted her _so much_? She would be in deep trouble if he ever found out, but for some reason… she didn't care. "A-alright, can you teach m-me?"

"Sure! First we'll need some of that paper… I think I might have some right here…" He rummaged through his weapons pouch and withdrew a piece of paper that he then ripped in two, holding them out to Hinata. "Hold one in each hand and use some chakra on them." As she did, one of the pieces wrinkled and the other became damp. "You're right handed, aren't you?" She confirmed his suspicions and he stared at the paper in her right hand, the wrinkled one. "Lightning affinity…" He muttered. That was unexpected… Elemental affinities often reflected the user's personality to a certain extent, like Naruto, such as Air, being speedy and unpredictable. Somehow, he couldn't see Hinata as a fast, wild lightning user… Maybe there was more to her than met the eye. "And a water secondary…"

"I-is that g-good?" She asked, worried about his distant, thoughtful look.

"Uh? Yeah, sure!" He said, snapping out of his thoughts. "Lightning Style techniques are weak against Wind, but strong against Earth." He informed her. She already knew it from the Academy lessons, but she let him play the teacher, which he seemed to be enjoying. "Unfortunately, I don't know any Raiton, and it's way too soon to work on your secondary affinity… We'll have to find someone to help you with your Nature transformation training. You see, before one can use any elemental jutsu, they must be able to mould and define their chakra into his innate type of chakra nature. For example, I had to use my chakra to slice a leaf in two before I could use Fuuton. I don't know what the Raiton exercise is… but I think I just remembered someone who might be able to help…"

* * *

Umino Iruka, chunin teacher at the ninja Academy, put his books back inside the drawers and tidied up his desk before exiting the classroom for lunch.

"Iruka-senseeeeeei!"

Startled by the sudden shout, his hand moved to his weapons pouch, but instantly retreated when he saw that it had been Naruto the one to call him. He smiled, happy to see one of his favorite students again. He was running down the hall to meet him, accompanied by Hyuga Hinata.

"Hi there, Naruto, Hinata! I heard you two recently completed an A-rank mission! That's very impressive, congratulations! Shouldn't Sasuke be with you two, though?"

"Nah, because of the mission, oji-san gave us a few days off and I'm helping Hinata-chan with her ninjutsu!"

"That's nice, but what did you come here for?" Iruka asked, smiling encouragingly at the two fresh genin.

"Well, we just found out Hinata-chan has a lightning affinity and we were wondering if you could tell us what the Nature Transformation exercise for Raiton is." Naruto explained.

"You came to the right person, then!" Iruka said. "You see, I'm a Lightning user myself."

"Eh? You are, Iruka-sensei?" There was another person Naruto couldn't envision as wild and uncontrollable like lightning… maybe there was something wrong with that particular affinity. "You don't seem like the type…"

Iruka's eyebrow twitched in annoyance. "And what's _that_ supposed to mean?" But he didn't wait for a reply. "Anyway, Hinata, I'd be glad to help you mastering the lightning element!" He headed back into the classroom, opened a drawer and withdrew some kind of small metal rod, which could easily fit into Hinata's hand. "Have one of these. Notice that it has a small lamp at the end of it. The exercise is very simple: Just apply lightning chakra to the rod until the lamp goes on. When you succeed, you will be ready for actual jutsu. Let me just give you a word of advice, though: Lightning is wild, devastating, as should be your chakra. Don't try to control it excessively. Simply vaguely directing it at your target will more than suffice, it is precise enough by nature, it doesn't need to be guided. Let your chakra run free when you release it, let it branch out and shock multiple enemies at once, let it scar the battlefield, let it strike with deadly accuracy. That is what lightning is like. Focus on speed and power rather than control and accuracy. Lightning does not like to be tied down. Let it run wild inside of you."

"That sounds really simple, Iruka-sensei!" Naruto exclaimed, slightly annoyed. "When _I_ learned how to control Wind, I was told it was about precise control… That seems much easier!"

"Maybe it _is _easier for you, Naruto." Iruka said, while Hinata took her time examining the metal rod. "But it might just be the hardest element Hinata could've gotten… Her strong point is control, but she lacks the required raw power... It's actually very curious that it is her main affinity… just as it is strange that yours is wind, now that I think about it."

"Uh? No. Wind is fast, unpredictable, just like me." Naruto argued.

"Yes, but it also requires very good chakra control, as you said, and it's one of the subtlest elements. Wind can cut, oh yes, and slash, just like fire can burn, earth can break, lightning can shock and water can drown. But it is much more than just that. With the right amount of creativity, wind can be used for more things that you can possibly imagine. Wind can also silence, suffocate, support and a whole variety of things like that… all it takes is the ability to think out of the box… and patience." Iruka explained knowingly. "Maybe your element got accidentally mixed up with Hinata's… but then again… perhaps your own affinities suit you better. Yes…" Iruka had spent many years teaching those kids and he liked to think he knew them well. As an adult, and a very perceptive one at that, he might actually know things not even themselves knew.

"I don't get it…" Naruto mumbled, getting tired of all the teacher talk. "What do you mean?"

"Oh, you'll find out in due time, I'm sure." Iruka chuckled as if witnessing a private joke and started walking away. He did want to have time for lunch, after all. "Good luck with your nature transformation training, Hinata! Remember, if you need any help, you can always come to me!"

* * *

Back at the training grounds, Hinata tried, unsuccessfully, to turn the lamp on the metal rod on, by pumping chakra onto it and trying to modify it according to her lightning affinity. "Still not strong enough…" She muttered to herself after the fifth attempt.

Naruto was off to the side, absent-mindedly practicing some katas, but paying more attention to Hinata's task than his own. After her sixth try, he couldn't hold himself any longer, his curiosity getting the best of him. "Hey, Hinata-chan, mind if _I_ try?" She shook her head and gave him the rod, watching with her Byakugan as he pumped insane amounts of chakra into the small object. It was wild and uncontrollable alright, but the lightning just didn't seem to come for some reason, and the lamp didn't go on. "Hm…" He grunted contemplatively. "I guess I just don't have the wildness inside me…" He said jokingly.

Hinata giggled. "I think you d-do, N-Naruto-kun." She said, setting the rod aside. "C-can I ask you which k-katas are those, N-Naruto-kun? I've n-never seen them b-before…"

"Oh. Well, my senseis valued creativity a lot, all of them. So they encouraged me not only to create my own techniques, but my own fighting style as well." He said, remembering Lion. "I call it the Ganjo na Kitsune, the Unyielding Fox."

"You d-didn't use it during the m-mission…" She noted.

"Yeah, I know, it isn't quite finished yet… I'm having some trouble linking all the attacks…"

As the two friends talked happily, someone watched them from the shadows, unnoticed. Eyes narrowed at the sight before them, a frown became visible on their face. A certain someone was seriously going to dislike that…

* * *

Hiruzen sat in his office, quietly cataloguing some mission reports. His paperwork for the day was nearly finished and he hoped that, for the first time in months, he'd be able to go home early. Fueled by the thought, he dispatched the annoying forms with speed worthy of a true Kage.

"Hokage-sama?" His secretary's head popped inside the room through the half-opened door. "There's someone here to see you."

"Tell them I'm busy." Hiruzen replied. "They'll have to wait a little while."

"She says she was ordered to report to you at once, even if that meant interrupting your work."

He sighed. "And whose orders were those?"

"Yours, sir." His secretary answered. "She says her name is Dedo Koro and that it is urgent."

"It's Koro? Why didn't you say so before? Let her in and leave us, please."

"Yes, Hokage-sama." She obediently said, disappearing behind the door.

Moments the later, Dedo Koro walked in and the door closed behind her. She had long, wavy, blond hair caught in a ponytail behind her head with an orange ribbon and two bangs on each side of her face, framing it perfectly and bringing out her big, kind, purplish eyes, reaching her shoulders. She wore an unzipped jacket the same color as her ribbon, which showed the plain white top that she had underneath and hugged her considerable curves. She also had tight grey shorts that allowed easy movement and standard ninja sandals. She was the chunin in charge of the Konoha Archives. Straight to the point, she approached the Hokage's desk and on top of it, she dropped a few file cases.

"Hokage-sama." She greeted respectfully with a bow. "Those are the files about Iwaro Suma, Nihe Fumase and Noya Osewa that you requested, sir."

* * *

**End of Chapter 7**

* * *

And so we end with yet another cliffhanger! I had a good time writing this chapter. I meant for some actual training to take place, but then added Hinata's flashback and Iruka's appearance and decided it was probably best to end it here. I think it turned out ok, though. Do you?

I think my weakest point when writing in english are the descriptions, because I don't have a very large active vocabulary... it's not that I don't know the words, they just don't come to me while writing. So I try to make up for them with the dialogue and the plot... I hope it's been working.

But wow… I _had_ been gone for too long… During this time, the number of hits to the story has rocketed, from 32000 to an astounding 72000, it got featured in over 50 communities and the favorites and alerts have gone up tremendously as well, both well over 500! Thanks, everyone!

I'm also glad that I finally finished the Wave Arc and can move on to a chapter I _really_ wanted to write. I hope you enjoy it too. This is also where the story starts getting different from canon, with an original (yet short, only about 2/3 chapters long) arc, Hinata's Training Arc. Next chapters will probably feature many flashbacks containing Naruto's training with the ANBU.

Also, as a reply to an anonymous reviewer (I usually reply to all those who have an account by PM) who stated that the ANBU senseis weren't developed enough. No, they aren't, but that was because of skipping Naruto's training, the only part so far where they had an important role. I plan on making them a vital part in the story later on, though, and character development will come in time.

Thanks for all the suggestions, corrections and opinions!


	9. The Tale of the Hidden Tree

**Arc Three: Hinata's Training**

* * *

**Chapter 8: The Tale of the Hidden Tree**

* * *

Eager to get to the bottom of the mystery, the Third Hokage hastily grabbed the file case on top of the pile – the one entitled "Noya Osewa" – and opened it. His expectant look quickly transformed into one of disappointment, however, as he flipped the pages with insane speed.

"This just looks-"

"Like any other regular Konoha shinobi's files, yes." Koro said.

Hiruzen put aside the file about Noya and moved to Iwaro's. "This one's just the same…" He muttered to himself. "There's nothing out of the ordinary in any of these, just what you'd expect from your average documentation. Known abilities, former teachers, mission reports… What is the meaning of this, Koro?"

The young chunin grabbed one of the files and carefully turned the pages until she reached the one she wanted. "All of those other pages were found in our "Active Shinobi" section, which is always organized and up to date. They are, as you said, just the kind of documents you'd find regarding any regular ninja of the village. This one, however…" Koro pointed to the page she'd found and handed it over to the Hokage. "It's just one single page that I retrieved from another section, the "Former Shinobi" one. Obviously, it isn't needed as often as the other one and the people in charge of it tend to neglect it. I was very lucky to have found it, too, because we were planning to have a major remodeling and reorganization of the Archives soon and some files could have been lost in the process."

The Sandaime finally took a look at the document Koro had given him and while at first it might have seemed like another standard ninja profile, at the bottom, on the field named "Status", it read "Defected. Presumed dead." It was the same for all the men's files. This rung a long forgotten bell in his head.

"After I found this, I was of course immediately suspicious of the information I had previously gathered." Koro continued. "I cross-checked the mission reports on those files with the ones on the Archives to see if there were any matches, but I found nothing. All of the missions on those reports are completely made up, as is some of the other info, I assume, but it seemed useless to search any deeper once I had already proven that the files were fake. It's clear to me now that someone planted the false information on our records so that these men could infiltrate the Hidden Leaf Village, and they would've gotten away with it if it hadn't been for those pieces of paper." She said, directing her index finger at the document that the Third still held in his hands. "No one would've bothered to check the authenticity of the info without them. As far as anyone was concerned, those three had always been loyal shinobi of Konohagakure." Koro finished, looking at the Sandaime for some sign of approval, but the old man seemed to be lost in thought.

They remained silent for a while until his head suddenly shot up and he yelled with a victorious glint in his eyes: "I remember! I remember who they were!"

* * *

Hinata had long lost count of the times she had poured her chakra into the metal rod in hopes of turning the lamp on. Some moment along the way, Naruto had gotten tired of practicing the Ganjo na Kitsune (Unyielding Fox) and now just sat uncharacteristically quiet under a tree, watching her performance attentively.

She could feel her reserves starting to run low but she still insisted and kept feeding her chakra to the rod, wanting to make her crush proud of her. Again and again she tried to mould the chakra, turn it into lightning like Iruka had told her, wild and powerful, but the light just wouldn't go on!

"Hinata-chan, I can see you're running out of energy. Wouldn't it be better if we took a little break?" Naruto suggested for what wasn't the first time, concerned for the well-being of his friend.

"N-no…" She stubbornly refused once more, panting heavily, her pale skin glistening with sweat. "I've g-got t-to keep t-trying… I c-can do this!"

"I know you can." He simply answered, feeling it was best not to insist.

His words boosted her confidence and with renewed strength, she again dumped huge quantities of chakra out of her palms and into the small object, but nothing happened. But she did not let herself be brought down by that and, after taking a long deep breath, got ready for another attempt.

* * *

"Hokage-sama! What do you mean you remember who they were?" Koro asked, perplex.

Hiruzen leaned back on his chair and sighed in relief because of the mental effort he'd made. "There was a time when I, as Hokage, knew each and every ninja that had ever laid foot on this village." He chuckled sadly. "I guess my memory just isn't as good as it used to be when I was younger."

"I bet your skills are still sharp as ever, however, Hokage-sama." Koro awkwardly replied, unsure of what to say.

"Hehe, never mind, Koro. There'll be time for me to complain about my old age later." He said. "Onto more important matters: I trust you've heard of something called the Hidden Tree Crisis before."

"It was mentioned back when I studied at the Academy, yes, but I can't say I remember exactly what it was."

"No wonder, you did not have to live through it, it was before your time." The man known as the Professor put down his pipe and entered what he liked to call his 'ultimate lecture mode'. "Allow me to explain, will you, Koro?" The blond kunoichi nodded and Sarutobi opened his mouth to tell his tale:

"It was the end of the Third Great Ninja War. The five Great Hidden Villages were severely weakened and, having signed a peace treaty, focused primarily on the rebuilding their homes and regrowing their armies. Minato Namikaze would be appointed as the Fourth Hokage exactly five months later, after the events I'm going to tell you about, but I was still the leader of Konohagakure no Sato back then.

As a consequence of the war, an unusually amount of missing-nin, mostly criminals of war and deserters, roamed all around the Elemental Nations and it was not uncommon for them to group together and form small communities so as to better defend themselves from the several hunting nin and bounty hunters after their heads. Some of them were even known to found small villages, a small number of which actually survived up to this day, such as Tanzaku Town, the famous gambling hotspot, which was built by a rogue nin from Suna and its followers.

Anyway, most of those groups were relatively harmless, seeking only to hide and survive, and it wasn't possible or needed for villages to hunt down everyone who entered their country, but there were of course some that were different. As their power and numbers grew, so did their ambition, an if they began to pose a threat to a Hidden Village, that village would be forced to dispatch men to dispose of them.

There was one particular community that caused the Hidden Leaf Village a great deal of trouble. We are uncertain about who exactly founded it. Some rumors state that an A-rank jonin from Iwa did it, while others point to a bunch of no-name chunin from Kiri. It doesn't really matter, I guess, not now…

They started out small and inoffensive, of course, as did all of the others, but they seemed to grow impressively fast by merging with other already existing groups of missing-nin and had soon become a substantial threat, forcing us to take action. We tightened security around the borders so no one else could come in and join them and formed various hunter teams composed of the finest trackers we had – mainly Hyuga, Inuzuka and Aburame ninja – to find and destroy the menacing rogues.

They appeared to be more skilled than I had given them credit for, however, and always managed to avoid capture. Soon they got tired of constantly being on the run and decided to settle down and create their very own village, but they knew that as long as they remained inside the Land of Fire they would be chased and that it was too risky to try and cross the border, seeing as it was heavily protected.

Cornered and trapped inside the country, they decided that their best course of action was to hire some well known mercenary companies from Hi no Kuni to enlarge their ranks and barricade themselves, if you will. They supposedly built a fortress of sorts, a base and locked themselves in. They called themselves the Village Hidden in the Trees.

Now here's the amazing thing about it: unlike most of the other villages, this one was actually well hidden. So well hidden, in fact, that despite having determined the general area they lived in, which was Southeast of the country, near the ocean and the border we share with the Land of Water, we were never able to pinpoint its exact location, leading many to believe that, unlike the actual organization, which gave us more than enough proof of their existence, the village itself was nothing but a myth. Indeed, it did seem a little hard to believe that a mere bunch of missing-nin was able to build an entire functional ninja village by itself, so we decided to go with that theory, assuming that they switched periodically between several concealed hideouts. We even found some evidence to support it: one vast cave inside a mountain showing obvious signs of having been inhabited by a large number of people.

Unable to locate the enemy, we chose to starve them. We carefully controlled any supplies coming into the country and assigned extra protection to every caravan. Several days passed without a reaction from the Tree nin and I'm afraid our shinobi in the border got a little too careless.

That was when the situation began to spin out of control.

The desperate rogue warriors, who had nothing to lose, took advantage of our carelessness and launched an all out attack against the border. We were taken by surprise and our forces all but decimated when they struck in the middle of the night. We were inevitably forced to retreat, leaving the border finally open.

They quickly used that to their benefit, importing as much goods as they possibly could, more groups of missing-nin from all over the world flowing to the Hidden Tree, lured by the prospect of safe haven and the promise of full pardon for their crimes. They grew too big, too fast, rumored to have attained power which rivaled even Konoha's.

I'll give them credit for one thing: they were masters of propaganda. They spread rumors about their own amazing power and the people whispered whatever they desired. They had agents inside every single Hidden Village, gathering info and instilling fear into their ranks. Of course we didn't know about this until the end of the whole crisis.

At the rate they were evolving, it wasn't long before the proclaimed themselves as an official Hidden Village, separated themselves from the Fire Country and created their own: The Forest Country, even though we never actually recognized their independency. However, no one else wished to wage war against the new, so promising village and they had no trouble accepting their claim.

They started robbing us of mission requests and our income dropped to an all-time low, jeopardizing the entire reconstruction of Konoha. The Fire Daimyo was out of his mind with rage and commanded us to wipe them out, in spite of our severely weakened state.

We tried to put off a decisive confrontation for as long as possible, opting to send out small scouting parties and raiding squads while trying to build up our forces as much as possible considering our situation. However, on all occasions one of our teams encountered Tree ninja, we were outnumbered and humiliatingly defeated. They even spared some of our shinobi just so they could come back and tell the tale of what had happened to them. Because of this and the contribution of their infiltrated agents, morale sunk like a rock, a very large and heavy rock, and people started getting used to the occasional desertion.

Eventually, we could delay it for no longer and sent the bulk of our forces to invade the Forest Country, led by Minato Namikaze, who had been renowed as a hero after the Third Great Ninja War. But even Minato's presence failed to boost morale.

And so, our army marched through Shinrin no Kuni, finding every enemy outpost mysteriously abandoned. Our men were afraid and, encouraged by the opponent's spies, defections became progressively more frequent. We searched the entire country just to be safe, meeting very little resistance along the way, but failed to discover any traces of a village, so we went back to the strategy we had used before and closed their borders.

Despite having the back-up of Kirigakure, which was also beginning to grow weary of the Hidden Tree's presence so close to their own territory, the men were fearful and suspicious. The fact that the enemy had seemingly abandoned their outposts and disappeared had left them uneasy, thinking that they were amassing their supposedly much superior forces.

We remained unopposed for a couple of weeks, until the Hidden Tree responded by issuing an ultimatum. According to them, they'd finished the creation of their absolutely massive army. Either we retreated peacefully and left them be or they would fall upon us without mercy the following day and carry out a massacre.

It was a risky move, but we decided to trust that, with the Mist by our side, we were sufficiently powerful to withstand their attacks and still maintain our position until they surrendered. Looking back, I don't think we even had another choice.

So we ignored the threats and held our ground, but the men were anything but content. Many of them were fresh, inexperienced and unprepared genin gathered at the last minute or chunin and jonin that had prematurely promoted after the war, in an attempt to make us look more powerful and discourage any possible attacks. Their own ninja moved undetected amongst ours, spreading stories about how staying there was suicide and how the Hidden Tree would eradicate us.

The night before the final battle, we witnessed our biggest desertion to that date: more than a hundred shinobi from each village chose to flee instead of facing our adversary honorably. Those were numbers that we, in our weakened state, could not afford to lose.

It was, however, too late to retreat. The path behind us had been blocked, so to speak, and Minato had no choice but to lead our men forwards in hopes that they could get out of there alive. As they had promised, the ninja from Kigakure no Sato (Village Hidden in the Trees) struck with all their might.

Turns out that Konoha alone could've easily handed it.

They had been bluffing the entire time, they were a lot less than they had let on. In fact, they'd purposely left their bases all but unprotected so that most of their men could wander around in large groups, posing as simple patrols to make us believe they were so many they could afford to do that. We had closed the borders before most of the missing-nin communities they had contacted could arrive, and the ones they had were weak and demoralized from the lack of food. It was actually a very easy victory.

As soon as they realized they had absolutely no chance of winning, they surrendered to us and allowed themselves to be taken prisoners. We sold many missing-nin back to their respective villages, appeasing the Daimyo with the amount of money we earned.

Soon, the majority of the rogues just wandering around were apprehended and dealt with, but some of our deserters were never found. We just assumed, erroneously, it would seem, that they had been captured by other villages or killed in one of the frequent skirmishes between rival groups."

His lengthy tale finally finished, the Hokage allowed himself to lean back on his chair and go back to smoking his pipe, letting Koro add two and two on her own.

"Hokage-sama… So you're saying that those three deserted the village after that whole ordeal?"

"That is _exactly_ what I'm saying, Koro. I am, however, clueless as to the reason they finally came out of hiding after all these years. They could've lived long, peaceful lives as long as we kept thinking they were dead…" He ran his fingers through his beard in a thoughtful manner. "I have a feeling we will find out in the future. Presently, we have more pressing matters that require our immediate attention, namely the apparent infiltration of Konoha."

Koro nodded solemnly. "And what do you plan to do about that, Hokage-sama?"

He put his hand inside the inner pockets in the Hokage cloak and withdrew a small, coin-like object. "Stick around and you'll see, Koro." Then he pressed a button on his desk to talk to his secretary. "Could you call for Hatake Kakashi, Maito Gai and Sarutobi Asuma, please?"

* * *

Hyuga Ko, appointed bodyguard of the heiress to the Hyuga clan, hid between a couple of very conveniently placed bushes and concealed his presence with a minor illusion while he spied on the two young genin's training. To say he'd been surprised after seeing what exactly the training consisted in was quite an understatement. He never would have imagined that Hinata was capable of going against a direct order from her father and begin practicing nature transformation.

He'd been her bodyguard for many years. While it had begun as a mere duty, a task placed upon him by the leader of his clan, it hadn't taken long before she started to grow on him. He had discovered that Hinata was actually a very likeable child: calm, obedient, kind, caring and always polite, even towards the members of the Branch Family, which she preferred to view as friends rather than servants. When they had noticed this, hope had risen within them. Maybe one day, when Hinata took her place as Head of the Hyuga, her kindness and empathy would drive her to remove the curse that was the Caged Bird Seal from clan traditions, freeing them. However, as she grew up, that hope quickly vanished. She revealed herself to be too soft, too weak to lead a clan, despite her incessant training, and they came to resent her for taking away their hope. Hiashi too eventually gave up on his eldest daughter, directing his attention to Hanabi, who had much more of her father in her and was much more susceptible to his influence, instead. Not that she would necessarily make a bad leader, but she would never even consider the possibility of abolishing the seal.

But as the rest of the Hyuga, both Main and Branch Houses, turned their backs on Hinata, Ko couldn't. He had always been her shadow, following her everywhere she went, and he had watched as, in spite of her father's discouragement, she always kept trying to improve her skills to make her family proud, failing every single time. She had been unable to master the Gentle Fist. She had never beaten her younger sister in a spar. She had failed at learning the Rotation Technique. It seemed that no matter how many times she tried, the poor girl could never truly achieve her goals.

So Ko had been surprised to see her training nature transformation with the Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi. Unlike many other Hyuga, he held no personal grudge against the boy, but couldn't help to wonder if it had been him who had somehow persuaded her to break the rules Hiashi had imposed.

Ko had noticed that she seemed to get unusually self-confident whenever she was around the blond and at first, a glimmer of hope was born inside of him and he just hid and watched her. The first time Naruto had encouraged her, he'd seen a fire in her eyes that she'd never had before. She had gathered more chakra than he had ever seen her do and pumped it furiously into the rod in her hand. His eyes widened in expectation, but he got disappointed when it became clear that nothing had happened and his hope died once more.

The following hours turned out to be a constant repeat of what Ko had already witnessed. Hinata would try several times without success, then the boy would say he believed in her or something similar and she would make another attempt with renewed determination and fail again.

After a rather long time, however, the Hyuga grew tired of that pointless exercise and shook his head sadly. She had tried, as she always did, but perhaps she just wasn't cut out to be a kunoichi. Deciding that her desperate attempts had gone on for too long, he chose to get up, dispel the genjutsu and walk straight into the clearing they were in, revealing himself. Hinata seemed surprised by his sudden appearance, but the boy just gave him a bored look as if he already knew he'd been there all along. That couldn't be possible, though, so Ko quickly dismissed his behavior as drowsiness or something of the sort.

"K-Ko-san!" She exclaimed. "What are you d-doing here?"

"I have come to pick you up, Hinata-sama. It's best if we return home." He said. Her training was going nowhere and if any other Hyuga happened to find her, they would certainly not be as benevolent as him and run to tell Hiashi of her disobedience. After he spoke, the Jinchuuriki narrowed his eyes and stood up, as if getting ready to intervene if necessary.

"B-But K-Ko-san, I'm in the m-middle of t-training…" She weakly argued, subconsciously hiding the rod behind her back, even if her bodyguard had already seen it.

Ko raised an eyebrow. It was not usual for the young heiress to resist like she had. Usually she would just follow him without question. "Come on now, Hinata-sama." He insisted, grabbing her arm and giving her a slight pull. "We need to go."

"Hey!" Naruto had felt that had been a good time to jump in. "You can't take her anywhere if she doesn't want to!" He shouted angrily.

"It's a-alright, N-Naruto-kun…" Hinata assured him, slightly embarrassed by Ko's actions. "I think it m-may be t-time to g-go, actually…"

The frown on the boy's face clearly indicated he wasn't really satisfied with her answer, but since she'd been the one to say she had to go, he was forced to let it pass.

Ko smiled in triumph, tightened his grip on Hinata's arm and, before she could even say goodbye, flickered away, taking her with him.

* * *

"What are your orders, Hokage-sama?"

"Kakashi, Gai, Asuma, you are three of my most trusted jonin." The Third said, standing up and approaching them. "And I have a mission of the utmost importance for you. Kakashi, I'm sorry that you have to do this on your days off, but it is extremely urgent."

"That's alright, Hokage-sama."

Hiruzen nodded, satisfied, having expected no less from one of his most reliable shinobi. "Now, where was I again? Right, a mission… First, however, I will need to examine you. Better safe than sorry, isn't that right?"

The three jonin were intrigued about exactly what kind of examination they were about to go through, but nodded nonetheless. The Hokage reached the first of them, Asuma, went through a lengthy series of hand seals and placed his hand on his son's forehead. At first nothing happened, but after a while, a tiny amount of chakra began to escape the Sandaime's open palm and enter Asuma, running through his body. That tiny amount progressively grew bigger and bigger until unbelievable quantities of energy were being poured from one Sarutobi into the other. Kakashi and Gai felt utterly humbled by the awesome display of power and couldn't even begin to imagine what Asuma was feeling like.

After a little while longer, the Hokage cancelled his technique, smiled and patted the bearded shinobi on the back before moving on to the other two. Once those had also been taken care of, he performed the same jutsu on Koro, who had needed to sit down meanwhile, because of the immense energy she felt emanating from Hiruzen.

"Just as I thought, all of you passed the test. There are no hidden seals in your body. I had no doubt you would, actually, but I needed to verify. I'll tell you what's going on, now." The Hokage then briefly informed them about the recent discoveries that had been made regarding Naruto's attackers. There was no need to remind them of the Hidden Tree ordeal, for they had all taken part in the war during that crisis.

The talk took about five minutes and when it ended, Kakashi spoke up again. "That is indeed preoccupying, Hokage-sama, but what exactly are we to do about all of this?"

"Kakashi, Asuma, Gai, it will be your mission to examine every shinobi in the village, like I just did to you, to search for and bring in any possible infiltrators for interrogation. You should check for any suspicious seals on their bodies, which might be invisible, and these distinctive tokens." He flicked his thumb, throwing the iron tokens they had found on the rogues' bodies, one at each man. "They seem to be usually located on the forehead, hidden by some sort of genjutsu. It is essential that you be swift and discrete, for if they find out about this, they will surely try to run away, and will not hesitate to kill themselves if they're caught. You should recruit the help of shinobi whose loyalty you've already proved, but only those who possess sufficient skill to break the illusions and detect the seals. After the ninja are all gone through, you will move on to the civilians. You can never be too sure. This is classified as a top-secret A-rank mission. Go."

After hearing this, the three jonin disappeared with no further delay.

"What should we do now, Hokage-sama?" Koro, who had kept silent throughout the debriefing, finally asked.

"Now… we wait. You are also dismissed, Koro."

* * *

"Hinata-sama." Ko called as the girl in question climbed up the stairs to her room. She stopped at the top and he quickly joined her. He was under the impression that she was upset with him for some reason, seeing as she hadn't spoken a word since they'd left the training field. "Are you angry?" She shook her head nervously, but he saw right through her. Everyone knew she was a terrible liar. "You are. I apologize, Hinata-sama, but I was trying to spare you from the wrath of your father."

"What d-do you m-mean, K-Ko-san? I was m-merely training." She said, trying to play dumb. "F-father is always f-first to say I n-need to do so more often…"

"Hinata-sama." He scolded. "I doubt your father would enjoy seeing you go against his orders." _"And be with that Kyuubi kid." _He added in his mind, but did not say so out loud. The boy – Naruto, wasn't it? – seemed to be friends with Hinata and he would take no part in depriving her of one of the few she had. "You were doing nature transformation training. You know that has been forbidden."

Realizing Ko had witnessed her transgression, she gave up on trying to hide it. "Wouldn't he b-be p-proud of m-me, though? If I was able to l-learn elemental j-jutsu?" She asked sadly, hopelessly. "Are you g-going to t-tell him, Ko-san?"

"I don't want to, Hinata-sama, and I will try to avoid it. You must understand, however, that if he asks me directly I won't be capable of lying to him and we will both be in deep trouble." He explained, and the girl gave a sigh of relief. "And that is why I strongly advise you to stop that foolishness. He shouldn't ever even suspect of this. Besides, you are not able to correctly mould your chakra yet, anyway." Her head perked up at this, but Ko did not notice and continued talking, without even looking at her. "You are not skilled enough to learn elemental techniques yet, Hinata-sama. Perhaps you are still too young."

"Sasuke-kun is my age and he can use Katon." She said, slightly annoyed, but Ko was still too distracted to realize she had not stuttered.

"Sasuke-san is a genius, a prodigy of the Uchiha clan, Hinata-sama. It's different. He is not you and you are not him. For now, you should probably focus on improving your Gentle Fist. How about you practice, say, the third set of katas?"

"I do all of the sets several times a day."

"There's no such thing as too much practice, Hinata-sama. Anyway, you should just leave nature transformation behind for now. Maybe when you are older. You shouldn't have to worry about such advanced jutsu at the moment." He finally snapped out of his thoughts and looked at her, expecting a relieved look on her face, maybe even a fervent "thank you" for taking that burden off of her back, but never the angry glare he got. "Is… is something wrong?"

"I… I had n-never expected this from you, K-Ko-san!" She yelled angrily, tears beginning to form in the corners of her eyes, trying to hold back her stuttering like she had done involuntarily seconds before.

"I… What do you mean, Hinata-sama? What have I done?" He stammered, puzzled. Was she really mad at him? Ko thought hard for a moment, but failed to recall any other time she had been so… hostile and aggressive.

"I thought you were d-different from all the others! I though you actually s-supported me!" She continued, tears now running free from her pupil-less pale orbs.

"I… I do! What are you talking about, Hinata-sama?"

"That's a l-lie! You d-don't and you probably never did! You don't believe in m-me! You're just like my f-father and the rest of the c-clan!"

Ko was beginning to lose control of the situation. "Listen, Hinata-sama, I don't know what that Naruto told you about, but elemen-"

"Don't you dare s-say _anything_ about N-Naruto-kun!" She shouted even louder. Fortunately there was no one in the vicinity. "He is the only one who b-believes in me and I t-trust him! He says I _can_ learn elemental jutsu and I'd never doubt him! He has f-faith in my abilities, unlike you!" Ko didn't have the slightest clue about what to say, being limited to stammering random, incoherent syllables. "B-but I'll show! I'll show everyone…"

"_I'm gonna be Hokage!" _Naruto would've said.

"I'm going to learn n-nature transformation!" She concluded and, before Ko could react, shot off to her room, where she locked herself. Then she lay on her bed and kept pumping chakra into the rod until she passed out from exhaustion.

* * *

The sun rose over the compound the following day, as the busy Hyuga got up and went about their business. Hinata had not left her room to have dinner the day before and Ko, half-driven by guilt because of his words and actions, decided to bring her a sizeable breakfast to make up for it. When he arrived at the door to her room he carefully placed the tray with the food on the floor and knocked softly.

"Hinata-sama? Are you awake?" He asked, receiving nothing but silence as an answer. "I brought you some breakfast."

There was no reply and Ko turned the knob tentatively, discovering that the door had been unlocked all along.

"Hinata-sama? May I come in?" He insisted, but still got no response whatsoever. He opened the door and peeked inside. The bed was empty, such as the rest of the room. "Hinata-sama?"

* * *

"_8:30 already? I should really be getting up…" _Naruto thought, moaning as he forced himself to leave the very comfortable warmth of his cozy bed and head into the bathroom. _"Nothing like a shower to get me started in the morning."_ He undressed and stepped inside the shower, but before he could turn on the water, someone knocked on the door. He sighed tiredly, still somewhat drowsy, wrapped a towel around his waist and walked up to his door, which he then opened.

"Hinata-chan? What are you doing here this early?" He asked distractedly, rubbing his eyes with his hands, not quite understanding the situation he was in.

Hinata, however, did understand. She understood she was at Naruto's front door, alone, while her crush stood in front of her almost naked, a rather small towel wrapped tightly around his waist the only thing preventing her from seeing his most private parts. She liked to think she had been becoming braver lately, even if only a little, and bolder, but the sight before her was still too much for her poor, virgin mind. Her face went so red it could probably glow in the dark, her brain went into overload, shutting down her senses all at once, and she fainted.

She woke up later on Naruto's couch. He was sitting at the table, not very far from her, already fully dressed, much to her relief – and, at the same time, disappointment – wolfing down bowl after bowl of ramen. She gathered her courage and cleared her throat loudly to get his attention.

"Uh? Oh, you're awake, Hinata-chan." He said, hesitantly taking his eyes off of his food. "Can I get you a bowl of ramen?"

She blushed. "N-no, thank you…"

"You don't know what you're missing on…" He shrugged his shoulders and went back to his meal, pausing after a while to talk to her again. "Why are you here this early, though? Any problems at home?" He narrowed his eyes, remembering the Hyuga man who had interrupted their training the day before.

"N-no, it's n-nothing like that…" She half-lied. "I'm… I was j-just… I'm s-sorry to b-bother you, N-Naruto-kun, b-but I was wondering if you'd t-train with me again t-today…"

His whole face instantly brightened up. "Sure! In fact, let's go right now!" He bolted out of the door, but stopped suddenly, as if he'd forgotten something, and ran back inside of his apartment. Seconds later he could be seen bursting out of the building , one of his hands holding Hinata's, all but dragging her along, the other carrying his unfinished breakfast.

* * *

"Hinata-sama?" Ko whispered carefully, slowly opening the door to the shinobi supply storage, but she was nowhere to be found. It had taken quite a few hours, but he had managed to search the entire compound for the girl, to no avail. If it hadn't been for the Byakugan, it would have probably taken him twice as much time.

He sat on a crate and sighed in frustration. Deep down, he had always known where Hinata had gone and who she was with, but he had wanted to believe that she hadn't gone against Hiashi's rules again and kept practicing nature transformation.

"_No such luck, I __suppose…" _He thought, and sighed again, that time around in resignation, as he grudgingly stood up and headed to the training grounds where he had found them before to drag Hinata home once more, much to his dislike.

* * *

"Come on, Hinata-chan, you can do it, I just know it!" Naruto shouted for the umpteenth time, and she channeled as much chakra as she could, but failed to light the lamp for even an insignificant second. Her head dropped and Naruto could see she was beginning to lose hope. "Don't give up, Hinata-chan! You're stronger than that!"

"N-Naruto-kun…" She whispered to herself, and got ready for another attempt.

Ko was angry. Angry at himself, for being unable to continue to trust in Hinata, angry at her, for disobeying him and her father, and angry at Naruto, for encouraging her, for leading her on, for doing something Ko couldn't. No matter how angry he was, however, he couldn't help but pity the poor girl. When would she realize that what she was doing was pointless? When would she realize she would never be as great as her father, her cousin Neji, or even her younger sister Hanabi? He took a second to calm himself down so he wouldn't be unnecessarily rude, then stepped out of his hiding spot.

"Hinata-sama, that was quite a scare you gave me. What were you thinking, sneaking out of the house like that?" He ignored the boy's glares and quickly stepped towards Hinata. "How can you expect to keep the other day a secret from your father if you keep doing the same?"

"K-Ko-san…" She stammered, the rage of the previous day forgotten. "We won't have to hide this f-from my f-father once I f-finally master the l-lightning element…"

Her bodyguard rolled his eyes incredulously. "What have I told you about that? You are still too young, too inexperienced for that kind of training. Come home and I will prepare a special training regime for you."

"B-but I want t-to learn n-natu-"

"Hinata-sama, we have no time for this foolishness. It's time to go, come on!" He said, grabbing her arm and pulling like he had done before and looking around nervously. What if someone had seen him leave the compound? What if they'd followed him? They had to get out of there as soon as possible. That time, however, she resisted.

"B-but… But… N-Naruto-kun…"

"Let's go, Hinata-sama!" He pulled once more, more violently, his nerves getting the best of him.

"Hey! She isn't going anywhere unless she wants to!" Naruto yelled.

"I d-don't want to, Ko-san!" She insisted. She would not bend, not again, not in front of Naruto.

"Hinata-sama!"

"Let me go, Ko-san!" She ordered, raising her voice and struggling to free herself from his grip, annoyed with the other Hyuga.

"You have to come, Hinata-sama! Quickly!" He pulled for the third time, but she did not let him win. Hinata fought with all her strength to get away from him, while Ko had to control himself so he did not hurt her. Naruto tensed, ready to jump in at his first opportunity and, after a few more seconds, finally found it. Hinata had managed to pry Ko's hands off of her jacket and made a run for it, but he'd reached out and caught her again at the last minute. His inconvenient position had caused him to lose a little balance, however, and Naruto smirked and clenched his fists, but he never had the chance to take advantage of the opening.

"Let me GO!" Hinata screamed, louder than ever before, releasing all the chakra she could, hoping that the sudden burst of energy would be enough to surprise him and make him release his hold on her. Much to her surprise, it worked. He quickly removed his hands and jumped back with wide eyes, shaking his hand as if he'd been literally shocked and, for a moment, Hinata forgot who they both were. She forgot that he was a high chunin, much stronger and more skilled than her, and her bodyguard, and a member of her clan and, consequently, family. She got into her Gentle Fist stance, furious, wanting nothing more than to teach him that she was also strong, that she was also skilled, that she could do whatever she wanted if she put her mind to it, that she could beat whoever she wanted, be it her sister or Ko himself, but before she could actually take action, Naruto brought her back to reality.

"Hinata-chan! Look!" He yelled excitedly, pointing at her hands with a huge smile.

She did what he'd told her, and what she saw filled her heart with hope and joy. She had had no idea that she was still holding the small metal rod, and that something had actually happened to it, but when she saw a faint, flickering light dancing around her fingers, she felt like jumping up and down in happiness. The lamp hadn't gone on entirely like it was supposed to, but it was a start.

And at that moment, under the looks of her bewildered bodyguard and her radiant crush, she felt prouder of herself than ever before.

* * *

**End of Chapter 8**

* * *

Phew! Another chapter finally finished.

You know, I feel like this story is really helping me grow as a writer. It's making me step out of my comfort zone and write about things I'm not exactly very experienced with, like the tale of the Hidden Tree Village. I'd never wrote anything about war and strategy before and I'd really appreciate any feedback you could give me about that particular part of this chapter. Was it any good? Was it too lengthy? Most importantly, was it **_believable_**?

As a response to a previous review I've gotten, and as a way to keep people from saying the same thing, know that I, like many other fanfiction writers, try to take the Naruto world and add something to it, new characters, a new story, and even _new villages or new countries. _It was never stated in canon that there was no such thing as the Village Hidden in the Trees, the Village Hidden in the Mountains or whatever other villages I have or may still come up with, so as far as anyone knows they could've existed. Even if they couldn't, this is still fan_fiction_. Also, the Village Hidden in the Grass and the Village Hidden in the Rain are not located in the Grass or Rain countries, respectively. The names of those countries remain unknown, so I made them up (Wilderness and Storm, in case you don't remember). Most writers and fans just give them the same names as their villages, for easier reference, perhaps.

Finally, I'd like to thank everyone reading "The Third's Fourth Pupil". I hope you enjoy this chapter and sorry for the rant above.


	10. To Fool the Byakugan

**Arc Three: Hinata's Training**

* * *

**Chapter 9: To Fool the Byakugan**

* * *

It took Hinata the rest of that day and the one after to completely master nature transformation, but she eventually managed to turn the light on and maintain it at will. Naruto had always been very supportive, encouraging her and cheering her up whenever she seemed to lose some of her determination. If it hadn't been for him, she would have probably given up right in the first day.

_"No."_ She kept telling herself. _"That was the old Hinata, not me. I'm stronger now, and more confident. Even if Naruto-kun's not around, I'll never give up!"_ Or so she liked to think.

Ko, on the other hand, had barely even talked at all. He usually just sat on a random tree branch above them, carefully observing their actions. Being proven wrong by two mere rookie ninja had humbled him somewhat. The young heiress' success had renewed his faith in her and, after gladly apologizing for both his words and actions, he had, with slight reluctance, stopped trying to drag her home every day. Instead, he chose to start helping her sneak out of the compound to train without raising suspicions, taking extreme care to remain unnoticed, to avoid being spotted and followed by any other clan member. Upon arriving at the training grounds, he then allowed Naruto to take charge and teach Hinata, opting to stand on the sidelines and watch, relishing on her achievements. Perhaps all hope for the Branch Family was not lost after all.

Hinata kept improving dramatically, but only on the third day did Naruto deem her ready to learn actual jutsu. So, when she had arrived at their usual training spot with Ko that day, she'd found he had brought a couple of scrolls on elementary Raiton from the library for her to study. When saw that, she had smiled tenderly. It was clear he was taking his teacher role very seriously. Together, they had gone over the listed techniques until they'd found a D-rank that would probably suit the girl.

At the moment, Naruto smiled proudly as he watched Hinata successfully managing to memorize and replicate with great speed the sequence of hand signs necessary to perform the technique in little over half an hour.

"Well done, Hinata-chan!" He said cheerfully, clapping a few times. Above them, sitting on a tree branch, Ko smiled approvingly. "You've definitely gotten the hand seals down! You Hyuga don't rely on ninjutsu much, though, do you?"

"Well, out f-family's t-traditional fighting style is a k-kind of nin-taijutsu, b-but I guess it's n-not the s-same…" She answered, and took a deep breath to calm herself down and control her stuttering. "So apart from that, no…"

"I thought so. Well, it just so happens that ninjutsu is my favorite out of all the ninja arts!" He grinned and gave her an enthusiastic thumbs up. "I was told that ninjutsu is one of the most misunderstood arts. When someone talks about genjutsu, for example, people tend to associate it with secrecy, subtlety, deadly and silent techniques that can incapacitate an enemy without them even realizing, and as far as I know, they are, for the most part, correct. Ninjutsu, however, invokes erroneous images of raw power and unbelievable energy, of blasting your opponents away with gigantic balls of fire, destroying entire buildings with unstoppable currents of raging water."

"B-but isn't power important?"

"Yes, of course, very, but ninjutsu is so much more than that! I don't know if you've heard this before, but my sensei used to tell me that the true strength of ninjutsu lies not in the technique itself, but-"

"In its user, y-yes. They told us that i-in the Academy, I think."

Naruto shook his head with a slight feeling of déjà vu.

* * *

_"… So the true strength of ninjutsu lies not in the technique itself, but-"_

_"In its user, yes. They told us that in the Academy, I think." Naruto said dismissively, looking defiantly at his masked sensei, Hare. They were both sitting on the ground in a small clearing in a forest in the Hokage Training Zone, a place that would later become their usual spot for ninjutsu practice. The tree leaves filtered the sunlight, bathing the whole area in a faint, mesmerizing green. "When are you going to teach me something relevant, sensei? I'm getting tired of these endless talks!"_

_Hare sighed tiredly, only then realizing what he would most likely have to put up with for the following years. "It would be faster if you were actually paying attention, brat! I see you didn't listen to anything I said. Well, perhaps a little hypothetical situation can get you thinking for yourself. Assuming, that is, that you are capable of such a feat." The boy crossed his arms and looked away angrily. "Listen up, now. Consider two shinobi, engaged in a fierce ninjutsu battle. One of them possesses remarkable chakra reserves and knows a few powerful, high B-rank or higher fire techniques. He's not particularly bright or patient, preferring to attack his opponents with his brute strength and plentiful energy, shooting away numerous jutsu until he completely obliterates them. The other one has a below average amount of chakra and knows only some relatively weak, low B-rank at best, wind techniques. As you should know by now, the Wind element is weak against the Fire one, but he is creative and cunning, making good use of his wits to strike in surprising, unexpected ways. As you see it, who would win?"_

_Despite the fact that many people believed otherwise, Naruto _was_ smart enough to realize that it was a trick question. There would be no point in asking it if the answer weren't the least obvious one, the second shinobi. What he couldn't figure out was why. "It has to be Wind Guy, but why? Fire Guy would turn him into a pile of ashes!"_

_Hare smirked. "Looks like you're not as brainless as you seem to be, gaki. Of course that a battle can have many surprising outcomes, but here's the situation as I imagine it: Wind Guy, as you so elegantly named him, would maybe start by countering Fire Guy's jutsu by using his Fuuton to create an area of vacuum in front of him."_

_"Wait, what? Can he even do that? How does that work?"_

_"I had a feeling you'd ask that. This is exactly why a ninja's knowledge must expand beyond the simple jutsu and fighting styles. You need to understand how things work. I'm sure Owl will go into further detail about this in the future, but, for the sake of this exercise, I'll give you a very brief explanation." Hare was somewhat afraid to go on, expecting the boy to quickly grow tired of all the chemistry talk it would involve, but he actually seemed to be very concentrated. "Picture a fireplace. That fire, just like all fire, needs two things to burn: the fuel, which in this case is the wood, and the oxidizer. You'll learn why and how this works later, but what really matters now is this: the fuel can be a variety of different things. In a Katon jutsu, it is chakra that plays that role. But the oxidizer is almost always oxygen gas or another oxygen-rich compound. Now, where can you find oxygen gas?"_

_"In the air…" Naruto muttered, realization slowly dawning on him._

_"So take away the air and, consequentially, the oxygen…"_

_"And the fire dies! That's awesome!" The boy yelled, his eyes sparkling with pure excitement. "I didn't know you could use Fuuton like that."_

_"Curiously enough, not many people do. You'll eventually learn a lot more stuff which will allow you to figure these kinds of things out on your own. Don't be foolish, however. Never overestimate yourself or your abilities. Wind is still weak against fire. A strong enough fire jutsu can be enough to dissipate the chakra holding the air back and make the vacuum pocket collapse upon itself. Always remember this." Hare warned."Now where was I? Oh, right. So Wind Guy would render most of Fire Guy's jutsu useless, spending only a slight amount of chakra while Fire Guy shot countless fireballs, trying to destroy his defense. With small bursts of wind directed at the ground he would be able to propel himself, increasing his speed to avoid the fire that he could not put out. He would also lift a cloud of dust and dirt to block his opponent's vision long enough for him to swiftly move behind him. Finally, a sharp, but small blade of wind would be enough to finish Fire Guy. Provided he aimed at one of his enemy's most vulnerable spots, such as the neck, Wind Guy wouldn't even need an enormous technique. And there you go. That's how a seemingly weaker shinobi would be able to turn the odds in his favor."_

_"That's really cool, sensei, but what does it have to do with anything?"_

_"Creativity, Naruto. Originality." Hare explained, using the boy's name for once. "The true strength of ninjutsu lies on its user only to a certain extent, because the amount of chakra or the speed of the hand seals, despite being important, are not what matters most. What matters most is the way in which the technique is used. Any good jutsu has more to it than meets the eye, has more uses that your opponent might expect, and any true ninjutsu master is able to make good use of all those possibilities. It is absolutely crucial that you think outside the box, and that's why I won't only teach you jutsu. I will also instruct you on creating your own techniques, on unlocking your creativity and imagination. If you succeed on doing so, and with the help of your tremendous chakra reserves, you might very well become one of the greatest ninjutsu masters in the Five Elemental Nations."_

_"So the true strength of ninjutsu lies not in the technique itself, but in the way in which it is used…" Naruto repeated. "That's actually got a certain ring to it, sensei!"_

_"I'm glad you think so, brat. Now let's move on…"_

* * *

"I s-see…" Hinata said after Naruto had told her the story. She couldn't really argue against it the way he'd put it, and it did sound logical. Still, it was strange to question something they'd taught her at the Academy.

"That's one of the reasons I decided to create my Wind Pulse technique. Not only does it dispel weak Raiton, I can also use it for many other things, like repelling light projectiles or pushing back mist and smoke, to name only a few." Naruto explained. "Don't think only your own original jutsu can have many uses, though. Even with already existing ones, you can still find and explore possibilities that perhaps not even their creators thought of!" He recalled the time in the Land of Waves when he had used the Doryuuheki to trap Zabuza rather than to protect himself. "I'm really curious about what you might come up with, Hinata-chan!"

* * *

_"Dammit! This is not good!"_ Kakashi thought, going through multiple possible strategies and outcomes in his mind, his legs moving on their own, but in the end it all came down to one thing: He had to catch her, _fast_.

The treacherous kunoichi ran away from him as fast as she could. Kakashi was faster, yes, but only slightly so, and she had gotten a considerable head start, which caused the chase to go on for too long. He'd been fortunate enough to have found her that early in the morning, when most people were still sound asleep inside their homes, but some had already spotted them. Shinobi running through the village weren't by any means an unusual sight, but if one of the other possible spies were to realize what was really happening, it would doubtlessly compromise the entire operation.

The kunoichi was somewhat skilled, too. So far, she'd been able to avoid every weapon and technique the masked jonin threw at her. The problem was that to use more powerful techniques was not an option. Kakashi couldn't risk hurting an innocent bystander or damaging a portion of the village. Still, the clock ticked. With every second that went by, the odds of being found out increased. Kakashi tapped his headpiece nervously, hoping that his comrade would hurry up.

Suddenly, a blur of green burst from a nearby alleyway just as the runaway ninja was passing by. "**Dynamic ****Entry!**" Gai shouted. His foot struck her in the stomach and she was thrown back into a building. The spandex-wearing ninja seemed pleased with himself, but Kakashi knew better. She still wasn't unconscious.

"Quick! Knock her out!" He yelled, running towards the traitor as well, but those few seconds had been all she had needed. With a mocking smirk, her eyes rolled up to the back of her head, which then slumped sideways. She was dead.

* * *

As Hinata quickly found out, learning an actual jutsu was much more difficult than nature transformation. Her chakra needed to be more abundant, her concentration superior, her control more accurate. That day, the best she had been able to do was producing a few sparks from her palms.

"Don't worry, Hinata-chan! You'll do better tomorrow, I know it." Naruto had said. "Practice makes perfect, right? Just remember to never give up." And although she appreciated his support, she was surprised to discover that, at least that time around, it hadn't been necessary. Strangely enough, she didn't feel discouraged by her inability to perform the technique. Naruto had taught her that some things took time to get the hang of, that haste would only drag her down, and that as long as she believed in herself and persist, she would eventually be able to achieve her goals. Elemental jutsu were, after all, a big step for a genin her age, it was alright if she didn't succeed at first since she'd always keep trying. For the first time since she was six, or maybe seven, she found herself looking forward to her next training session with full confidence in herself. It was a weird, alien feeling, but wonderful nonetheless.

The sun was setting over the village when Hinata began her walk back to the compound. Ko had had some sort of errand to run, but she'd assured him that there would be no problem in going by herself. The streets were calm and quiet, covered in beautiful orange sunlight, and a feeling of happiness and peacefulness invaded the young girl as she made her way home slowly, taking her time to fully contemplate her surroundings. Her future seemed bright. Naruto and her were quickly becoming very good friends and his training allowed her to get stronger so she could one day make her father proud.

She greeted the guards at the gates when she reached her destination, and walked up to the door. She turned the knob lazily and pushed, coming face to face with her father. Her confidence seemed to melt away under his stern gaze.

"Hinata." He simply said. "I have been awaiting you."

"F-father?" That had been unexpected. _"What could he possibly want from me?"_

"I noticed you have been absent from the compound more than usual, lately. Have your days off come to an end?" He inquired, his eyes never leaving his daughter.

"N-no." The Hokage had sent an ANBU to inform Team 7 of the situation. "Kakashi-sensei was assigned a-an u-urgent mission from the Hokage. He will b-be unable to c-continue training the t-team until it is o-over."

"I see. That is most unfortunate. Then might I ask what you have been doing outside your home in these past few days?"

"I have b-been… training, father." She replied, hesitant.

He raised an eyebrow. "On your own? That does not seem like the wisest course of action. A child your age needs guidance. A sensei."

_"I have a sensei. A great one."_ She thought, but what she said was entirely different. "Hai, f-father."

"It has been long since you last used the family dojo. Have you forgotten about you duties to the clan? It would be unfortunate to let your… skills stagnate." He gave her a look that clearly said: _"I know that you are hiding something."_

"N-no, father, I have n-not forgotten."

He studied her carefully, her face, her body language, her voice, for any signs that could give her away. "Very well." Were his words a few minutes later, after his examination, but the tone of his voice clearly said otherwise: _"This does not end here."_ "Then I must insist you accompany me to the dojo. I wish to see for myself exactly how much you have improved with that 'training' of yours."

* * *

"Hinata-sama. Wake up. We should get ready to go." No matter how many words Ko spoke softly into her ear, however, she would not wake up. He gently nudged her shoulder and her eyes shot open.

"Ko-san?" She mumbled. Her entire body ached and she let out a moan as she sat up.

"Good morning, Hinata-sama. You should get ready to leave."

"… Leave?" She repeated, her mind still a bit hazy from her slumber. "Oh, that's right, Naruto-kun!" Her memories flooded back in with ease and she suddenly remembered the previous night. "Oh no… Father, he… He was waiting for me last night." Ko's eyes widened but he did not interrupt. "Ko-san, I… I think he suspects something. He asked me where I went when I wasn't home… I told him I had been training."

"Well, that is not by any means a lie, Hinata-sama."

"No… but it is not the entire truth either. I think he knows that there is something more." She gulped. "I don't know what to do."

Ko placed a hand on one of her shoulders. She winced in pain, but did not protest. "Well, Hinata-sama, I would say that is entirely up to you."

"Uh?" Was all she could say. She had expected something else from her bodyguard, some kind of advice to stop practicing elemental jutsu, to stop going behind her father's back. She had expected him to patronize her, to tell her that it was too risky, that it wasn't worth the effort, anything. Anything but that.

"Yes. If you choose to continue meeting with Naruto-san, we will just have to be extra careful not to be found out. But if you do not wish to do so, it is also alright. I could go and explain the situation to him, if you wanted me to, and I am sure he would understand. Just know that regardless of what course of action you do pick, I will always do my best to support you."

"K-Ko-san…" She whispered, tears of happiness threatening to spill from her eyes. "What d-do _you_ think I should d-do? Is… is the training worth c-continuing? C-can I even do it?"

"I know you can, Hinata-sama, just like I know that someday you will be one of the greatest leaders the Hyuga clan has ever known." He said confidently, with no hesitation whatsoever. "I was wrong not to trust you in the past."

And so, all things considered, it ended up not being that difficult of a decision. "The training goes on."

As it turned out, however, that training session went without incidents of any kind. By the time it finished, Hinata was still unable to perform the jutsu correctly, but she showed obvious progress when compared to the day before. Furthermore, the intense ninjutsu practice also helped to improve her stamina and chakra reserves.

When she got home, however, she found her father waiting for her once more. That time he did not inquire about anything, just invited – which here meant ordered – her to participate in another training session with him. This routine repeated itself for another couple of days. She'd be woken up in the morning, bruised and sore, by Ko, and they'd leave the house separately and head to the training grounds to meet with Naruto, where they'd practice her Raiton, unsuccessfully, until the sunset. Then Ko and her would walk back to the Hyuga complex. Again, they would separate before they went in, so as not to raise suspicions. Ko would usually go around and sneak in through one of the back doors while Hinata went in through the front one, after which she would be met by Hiashi, who'd immediately drag her to the dojo for more training and a spar. To finish her days, she'd have a very quick dinner and crawl back to bed for some well deserved rest.

She soon found, however, that despite the harshness of her father, she was able to cope with that routine, with some help from both Naruto and Ko, but she lived in constant fear of her father finding out about her illicit training. A fear that would become true on the third day.

* * *

It started out as any usual day for Ko. Skilled, experienced ninjas were capable of waking up at any time they wanted without the need for alarm clocks. He'd get up earlier than the rest of his family and wake Hinata up so they could leave the complex without being seen by many people. She was the first to leave. That early in the morning, none of the clan members awake had the power or nerve to stop or question the heiress. He gave her some minutes, then left himself, under the pretext of having to run an errand. There were so many Hyuga living in the Compound that no one would notice his absence.

Hinata and Naruto usually started with some minutes of warm-up exercises, giving Ko time to stroll around the village a bit, something he quite enjoyed doing. Only when he thought the two genin were about to begin the actual jutsu practice did he finally start walking towards the training grounds. On his way there, however, he noticed something was wrong. He was a sensor-type shinobi, which made him capable of sensing the faint traces of chakra around him, the remnants of what was being emanated from his destination, still some distance away.

Intrigued and slightly worried, he activated his Byakugan and his field of vision expanded as the world lost his colors. He focused his attention on Training Ground 15, the meeting place for them and Naruto and the origin of the chakra, and realized what the problem was instantly.

Hinata was frozen in place, unable to do anything. One of her hands had instinctively risen to cover her mouth in a protective gesture and she had a terrified look in her eyes. Naruto stood in front of her defensively. Usually, the blue color of a human's chakra was soothing, relaxing for a Hyuga, a refreshing change from the grey-ness that the Byakugan caused, but it almost pained Ko to look at Naruto's.

He, like most people his age, knew about the Bijuu sealed inside the boy, and he had, of course, inspected the boy with his kekkei genkai before. He'd seen the red, demonic chakra stored deep inside the blond, but it had been different that time. It had been still, inactive, seemingly harmless, with nearly no differences from its container's own other than its color.

Now, however, it was stirring, bubbling, slowly creeping its way out of its prison and mixing with the blue one inside Naruto's chakra coils, then proceeding to pour from his body in a menacing manner, and it was simply disturbing to watch. Ko had heard tales from some fellow clan members and even some other shinobi about how, during the attack of the Kyuubi twelve years before, some Hyuga had attempted to inspect the beast with their bloodline limit only for their eyes to be burned by the malicious chakra in its purest form, blinding them permanently, a destiny worse than death in the opinion of many of his clan's members. That wasn't happening to Ko, maybe because it was just a myth or because it was sealed inside a human vessel, but it was still disturbing to look at. It was something wrong, tainted, evil, which, unbeknownst to its container, constantly tried to take over his body. Fortunately, the boy seemed to hold a certain degree of control over it for the time being, but most Jinchuuriki were known for being unreliable, unstable. It wasn't that he didn't trust Naruto, but as he saw it, the fiend inside him hadn't even begun to really try to escape. If it suddenly attempted to break out with all of its strength, would the seal resist? Would Naruto fight it?

And then there was the reason for Naruto's anger, of course. A man, with his back turned to Ko, which prevented him from seeing his face. He did, however, recognize the crest sewn on the back of his clothing: the red flame that was the symbol of the Hyuga clan.

As he approached the three people, the sounds of their arguing became progressively louder and clearer until he could actually understand what they were saying.

"–on't care what you say, you can't take her if she doesn't want to go! I won't let you!" Naruto was yelling. His clothes were dirty and his face covered in light scratches.

The Hyuga man spoke in a calmer, more controlled tone, although equally as threatening. "Is that right? And what are _you_ going to do if I try to, demon? Fight me? Please. I have shown you that it is impossible for you to beat me. I would obliterate you."

As much as Ko hated to admit it, he had to recognize the facts: the other Hyuga man was arrogant, but most likely truthful. His clothing indicated he was ranked a jonin and no matter how skilled the boy was, such a shinobi, and a Hyuga at that, was way beyond his abilities.

Naruto snarled and showed his fangs in response, but before he could give an actual spoken remark, Ko arrived at the clearing.

"Ah, Ko." The other man acknowledged him. "You are Hinata-_sama__'__s_ bodyguard, are you not? Maybe you can talk some sense into this girl. She should know better than to associate herself to this kind of _scum_." He practically spat the last word at the blond. Ko felt his blood boil at the insult to the young boy he had come to respect and even admire, but did his best to control his emotions. It was best if the other man thought he was on his side. More problems were likely to arise otherwise. "Hiashi-sama wants to see his daughter." The oblivious jonin continued. "I take it he will be most… _displeased_ to find out she has gone against his orders in such a manner. I'm sorry for you, Hinata-sama." His smirk, however, clearly gave away his obvious lie.

Naruto growled, still protectively in front of Hinata, but discretely looked at Ko for some kind of guidance. They exchanged looks and the message in Ko's eyes was clear. _"I'm sorry, Naruto. It's over. We've been found out. We have no choice but to play along for now."_

"Hinata-sama, that is enough." Ko stated. "As your bodyguard, appointed by Hiashi-sama himself, your honorable father and leader of the great Hyuga clan, I command you to come with us at once. It is unadvisable to keep him waiting too long."

"What are you going to do now, boy?" The jonin added. "Think you can take on both of us?"

"You Hyuga are all the same. I'm sorry, Hinata-chan." He said, and moved away from Hinata, who immediately understood what was going on and joined Ko.

"You made the correct decision." Ko stated. "Let's go."

* * *

"Hiashi-sama. Nomo has arrived, and he brings your daughter."

"I see. Send them in." He told the Branch Family member, who hurried out of the room to carry out his orders. A few moments later, Hinata walked into her father's study, escorted by her bodyguard and the jonin he had dispatched to spy on her.

"Hiashi-sama." The jonin bowed deeply. Hinata and Ko did so as well, albeit silently.

"Speak, Nomo. I, in my rights as a father, commanded you to follow my daughter today and observe her actions. Why have you returned to me so soon? What do you have to report?"

"Hiashi-sama," He seemed to keep repeating the name. "I felt it was no longer necessary to continue observing your daughter after her disobedience had been confirmed. I assumed you would want me to stop such disrespectful behavior, so I brought her with me. I did what you ordered me to do obediently. I tailed Hinata-sama from the moment she left the Compound. I watched as she hastily headed to Training Grounds 15 to meet with one Naruto Uzumaki."

"Naruto Uzumaki…" Hiashi repeated, his annoyance increasing. "Refresh my memory, will you? Is that not the boy…" He searched for a way to refer to him without mentioning the demon within. "… Protected by the Sandaime's law?"

"He is, Hiashi-sama."

"I see. Please proceed."

"Hinata-sama and the boy then started what looked like a few warm-up exercises of some kind, doubtlessly a preparation for the training that would ensue. It was clear, however, that neither knew what they were doing. After they had completed those exercises, they moved on to jutsu practice."

"Jutsu, you say? What could the boy possibly hope to know about Hyuga jutsu?"

"It was not Hyuga jutsu that they were practicing, Hiashi-sama, but elemental ones." As Nomo said this, Hiashi's eyes flared with a little anger and quite a lot of shock. He had never expected such a degree of disobedience and defiance. When his daughter had started acting strange he had immediately suspected she was up to no good, but to think that Hinata, sweet, shy, obedient Hinata would be capable of disrespecting him and the clan in such a manner… "It appeared to be some sort of Raiton, judging from the sparks that were all that she was able to produce. The way they were acting leads me to believe that that was a routine that had been going on for more than just one day, but she was still unable to perform the technique correctly. After witnessing such intolerable insolence I could no longer contain myself. I revealed my presence and gently asked Hinata-sama to accompany me back to the complex."

_"What? That's not how it happened!" _Hinata wanted to intervene, to tell her father that that wasn't the way things had happened, that he had ordered her to go and insulted and threatened Naruto, but she knew it was best to stay silent.

"But before I could do anything, the boy immediately went feral and savagely attacked me."

_"Stop lying!" _Hinata screamed in her head.

"He soon understood he had no hope of beating me and instead chose to try to keep Hinata-sama away from me. I tried to reason with him, to talk things through. I asked him several times to let go of Hinata-sama, but he just would not listen."

_"Lies! Lies, lies, lies!"_

"Finally, Ko-san here arrived and, faced with two very superior opponents, the boy just ran away, abandoning Hinata-sama. After that, we brought her here before you, Hiashi-sama."

"_Liiiiiiiiiiies!"_

Sitting on the pillow on the floor of his study, Hiashi reflected on what he had just been told.

"Hiashi-sama…" Nomo said. "Excuse me for interrupting, but I carried out your orders dutifully… and successfully. May I inquire about the possibility of some sort of… compensation?"

The Hyuga Head eyed the man. Sure, he _had_ completed the mission he'd been assigned, but Hiashi did not like him. He wasn't as foolish as to believe _everything_ he'd been told. There had been much unnecessary boasting and some _very _obvious lies. The Hyuga clan was great, yes, but too much was too much and Nomo clearly needed a little lesson in humility.

"Very well." Hiashi agreed, and the jonin's mouth stretched into a satisfied smile. "You have served me well, that is true. However, I could not help but find it… _intriguing_ that such a skilled Hyuga jonin had so much trouble dealing with a simple no-name genin." The man's smile faltered a little, not yet sure of where his clan leader was going with all that. "As such, I will give you a fitting reward. I shall personally ask the Hokage…" Hiruzen was fond of the boy and Hiashi knew it. Once he had told the Sandaime about Nomo's disrespect towards the boy he'd certainly get the older man to comply. "… And I'm confident that I will be able to get you off of active duty for a few days. During that time, you shall have the privilege of receiving harsh, intense training from one of our strictest masters." The outraged jonin opened his mouth to protest, but Hiashi cut him off. "There is no need to thank me. It was only fair." He said, which was code for, _"__My __orders __shall __not __be __questioned.__"_ "You may go now."

"Hiashi-sama." Nomo muttered, his smile completely gone by then, and he hastily left the study.

Hiashi then turned back to Hinata and Ko. "That man may be an arrogant fool, but I would be as much of a fool if I had not seen at least _some_ truth in his words. I am… unhappy." The two other Hyuga saw right through his understatement. "Ko, did you know of this… situation?"

That was it, then. It was over. They had been caught and there was no point in trying to cover it. Whatever the consequences, he would not allow Hinata to go down alone. "Hiashi-sama, I-" He began, ready to confess his part in Hinata's disobedience.

"He had nothing to do with it!" Hinata suddenly interrupted, no stuttering, no hesitance. "He knew nothing!"

Ko could only stare at her in disbelief then, his mouth wide open for a moment, an almost irresistible invitation for any bug inconveniently flying by. She stared deep into her father's eyes with amazing confidence, never turning away, never faltering, not even blinking. It was as if nothing could break her ferrous gaze. _"I… I can't tell she's lying!"_ The girl was usually such a bad liar that even non-Hyuga had an easy time seeing through her miserable attempts at deception. She blushed, stumbled over her words and was unable to establish eye contact, but this time… this time it was different. When had she gotten that degree of confidence in herself? And most importantly, she had risked herself to protect _him._Ko knew Hiashi must have been at least as surprised as he was, although he didn't show it. He too seemed unable to detect his daughter's lie.

"Hinata, know your place. Answer only when directly asked a question."

"Yes, father." She complied, but held her gaze.

"Ko, is what she said true?"

"Y-yes, Hiashi-sama." He managed to blurt out, confusion etched across his face. Only a couple of seconds later did he remember to go back to expressionless, with the forlorn hope that Hiashi had not noticed his slip up. However, to his great shock, the head of the clan didn't even look at him, choosing to focus on Hinata instead, carefully searching for anything that might betray her. That was the greatest weakness of the Hyuga clan, Ko realized, even bigger than their blind spot. Hiashi was relying so much on his eyes, concentrating so much on his daughter, that he hadn't noticed Ko's stuttering, a beginner's mistake. The famous Hyuga all-seeing eyes had been fooled.

"I understand you also played a part in taking my daughter away from that kid. For that, you have my gratitude. Now please leave. I have some matters I must discuss with Hinata in private." Ko left as he'd been told without speaking another word, leaving father and daughter alone. "And now, my daughter, I wish to know exactly what went through your head. Elemental jutsu? Had I not told you they were forbidden? Had I not told you that you were not ready, not until you successfully learned the Kaiten?"

"N-Naruto-kun said that elemental jutsu could help me successfully perform the K-Kaiten…" She mumbled, her previous resolve dissipating quickly – a clear indication of the amount of work she had yet to go through – but she knew it had been a huge mistake to say that right after the last word had escaped her lips.

"And you chose the boy's word over mine? Ridiculous." He said, only a tinge of anger in his voice. "Preposterous, pathetic. Do you perhaps think that the boy is a better teacher than out many professional sensei? As if he of all people could teach you anything, elemental jutsu of all things. Did you even undergo nature transformation training like one is supposed to? I doubt the boy even knows what that is. He did not even test your chakra affinity! A Hyuga with Raiton, honestly…" He rolled his eyes as if the simple concept was too farfetched to even consider. "He must have thought it would be fun to have you shoot thunderbolts from your hands. This simply cannot be. You disobeyed direct orders from your father and clan leader with complete disregard for your duties as heiress. Your irresponsible and disrespectful behavior has ashamed me and the entire Hyuga clan. I must not seem soft to the eyes of my clansmen. You must be punished."

* * *

It was already late in the afternoon when Ko finally decided it was safe enough for him to go check on Hinata. According to what he had heard from other Branch Family members, she had not left her room since she'd gotten back from her father's study, not even for lunch. Some of them had even taken her food and left on the floor right by her door, but she had not seemed inclined to eat.

Ko opened the door and stepped over her could, untouched meal to go inside. She didn't do anything to stop him, but neither did she acknowledge his presence. He could see dark spots in her bed that indicated she had been crying, but it seemed like she had stopped meanwhile. She was quiet at that moment, her head buried deep into her soft pillows.

"Hinata-sama? What happened? What did Hiashi-sama say?" He sat on her bed next to her and listened to her sobs. "Are you in trouble, Hinata-sama? Did he punish you?"

"K-Ko-kun…" She mumbled, lifting her head for him to see. Small spots on her face glistened with her tears. "F-father, he… he…" She was, however, unable to complete her sentence and started crying once more. A little clueless as to what to do in that kind of situation, Ko just awkwardly put one arm around her and pulled her closer to himself. It was clumsy, but she seemed to appreciate it and calm down. After a few deep breaths, she was ready to speak again. "He s-said I was weak… a d-disgrace to the c-clan… and that I n-needed to r-realize that s-so I wouldn't disobey him a-again… So t-tomorrow he… he will s-summon the entire clan and… and… and…"

"Calm down, Hinata-sama. Take a few more deep breaths."

She stayed silent for a while, gathering what was left of her confidence and will so she could finish explaining what had happened to Ko. "T-tomorrow… he will s-summon the entire c-clan to watch… He said that a-after my little s-sister Hanabi b-beat m-me in an all out fight before e-every Hyuga in the v-village I will think t-twice before d-disobeying him again. A-and to m-make sure I have n-no choice but t-to fight with e-everything I've got… if I l-lose… no, he s-said _when_I lose… I will b-be forbidden f-from seeing N-Naruto-kun…"

* * *

**End of Chapter 9**

* * *

And there you go. The next chapter will probably be the last in this arc. While short, I hope you're all enjoying it.

First of all, I'd like to thank everyone who reviews this story, adds it to the alerts and favorites and even simply reads it! Thanks to you we're way over the 100k visits milestone (almost at 120k), over 800 alerts and 700 favs and even more than 100 author alerts! Thanks for all your support!

This chapter was a little tricky to write and as I find myself delving deeper into the mechanics and relationships inside of the Hyuga clan I realize I have to be very careful with the way I portray the characters. I am, however, happy that this story is proving to be a challenge. What do _you_ think? Am I getting the Hyuga clan right? Are they too out of character? I love to hear some feedback from the readers.

Also, if you find any character thoughts that are not in italic, I apologize. The document manager seems to be having some problems. When I first uploaded the chapter, all bold and italic words were glued together into massive one-word paragraphs, so I had to format the original document, upload it again, then manually change thoughts and jutsu, and I may have missed some.

Usually, I try to answer to all reviews, but I am well aware that sometimes I miss a few. If you want to discuss the story – or anything else, really, like the Naruto manga – in more detail, feel free to send me a PM.

Bye!


	11. Fast, Wild, Uncontrollable

**Arc Three: Hinata's Training**

* * *

**Chapter 10: Fast, Wild, Uncontrollable**

* * *

"Very nice!" The Hyuga sensei complemented. "Nearly flawless, but I did notice that you seemed to lose a little balance after the third strike. Your Juuken is indubitably superior, but still, you should not take unnecessary risks."

Hinata didn't want to fight her sister, she really didn't, but what other choice did she have? If she refused, if she disobeyed an order from her father _again_, the consequences would certainly be much worse.

"Steady now, steady, do not forget your footwork!"

The mere thought of hurting her little sister – assuming she would be able to, of course – saddened and repulsed her. Her brain found the idea revolting and her body ached in protest, but the alternative was equally frightening and unappealing. She could either win the fight or let Naruto down. To lose the match would confirm what everyone else believed about the boy, it would be like throwing away all the training they had done over the previous few days, it would be saying that hard work could never truly measure up to raw, natural talent. It would be like betraying him and everything he stood for.

"Perfect. This time it was _truly_ flawless. Your sister will not stand a chance."

And worst of all, losing meant she would no longer be allowed to see Naruto. She vaguely wondered what her father planned on doing about her team – she would obviously have to be with him during missions and training – but she was sure he'd come up with something. He always did.

Now that she thought of the boy, she asked herself how he would react if he found out about her punishment and its possible consequences. One of the things that pained her the most was that he might not know until it was too late. They were becoming such good friends… she couldn't bear the thought of letting go of that. She had no choice really. She hadn't had a choice from the very beginning.

She would have to fight her little sister before their whole family.

And she would have to win.

"Very well, very well indeed! Once more, please. We have to make sure you will perform equally well in combat. I am sure that you will beat your sister." The Hyuga sensei instructed and encouraged. "There is no way you will lose to her, Hanabi-sama."

In her room, Hinata closed the window and walked away, losing Hanabi and her sensei from view. She had to train as well.

* * *

Hiashi lifted the cup to his lips, relishing on the smell and texture of the sake before drinking it in small, quick sips. It always calmed him down to have a quiet cup of his favorite beverage, and he definitely needed to calm down at that moment.

Even after getting proof of Hinata's disobedience, even after she had confessed, even after he'd punished her, he still had a hard time believing it.

To punish Hinata had been logical, the only decision he could've taken actually, but that didn't mean that, contrary to popular belief, it hadn't pained him. It was never easy to be like that to one of his daughters, but he had to maintain his image of strictness and inflexibility before the clan and both Hinata and Hanabi needed to learn proper Hyuga behavior or they would never survive clan politics when they grew older. If their own father did not set the example, how could he hope they followed it?

Hiashi had always been very assertive and sure of himself, but he had mixed feelings about Hinata's actions, something that he had seldom experienced, and disliked. Regardless of how long he thought about it, he could not figure out if he felt angry and disappointed that she had disrespected him or happy and proud that she had found the courage and confidence to defy him and the will to train harder and grow stronger.

And with Konoha's Jinchuuriki, of all people. The whole situation was so much more complex because of that small detail. Hiashi took pride in his intelligence and rationality and it were those two qualities that prevented from making the same mistake that most of the other inhabitants of the village, and many other Hyuga as well, unfortunately, had.

Granted, he had not suffered the same losses many of them had. He had lost some of his clansmen in the Kyuubi attack, of course, but the strict training all Hyuga underwent, along with their kekkei genkai, had saved him from the same kind of devastation that had inflicted other clans and shinobi. Furthermore, Hiashi also lost Hyuga in missions. If he couldn't control his emotions every time someone passed away, what kind of leader would he be? In times of crisis, it was his duty to serve as a rock for his clan.

He could understand the others' pain, and their need to vent it, but not the way in which they did so. The boy's situation was, after all, not his own fault. It had not been his choice to have a powerful demon sealed inside him and there were no signs whatsoever that the Fox had taken over his body, influenced him in any way or any of the other stories, rumors and accusations that reached the Hyuga leader's ears.

He did not dislike the boy because of the Kyuubi no Yoko. He disliked him for entirely different reasons.

It was his actions that displeased him. The boy simply did not behave. He had, until recently, been dead last at the Academy, he was loud, rude, careless, not to mention the little pranks he pulled, one of which Hiashi had even been a victim of. The fact that the boy had had a hard time growing up and no family to teach him was no excuse, seeing as he did not even make an effort to change, now that he was older. Such improper behavior was not looked kindly upon by a strict clan as the Hyuga, and Hiashi was simply worried about his daughter like any father would. He feared the boy could be a bad influence on her, and the last thing she needed was that.

He did not want to deprive Hinata of her friends, but there were certainly more suitable candidates for the position. Besides, it had most likely been the boy to convince her to go behind his back and do pointless, unorganized, misleading training – Hinata, a lightning affinity? – that had only served to confuse her further.

Yes, looking back on it, Hiashi was sure he had made the right decisions for Hinata, even if she did not enjoy them. She would understand when she was older. Or so he hoped.

* * *

The Hyuga organizing the match had determined it would take place at nine in the morning. As such, Hinata woke up an hour and a half earlier so she could get dressed calmly and do some stretches.

Fifteen minutes before the fight she was escorted to the courtyard, where most of the clan was already waiting – Hyuga valued punctuality very much – by a Branch Family member. The spectators stood against the walls, leaving plenty of free space in the middle. Hinata made her way to the center and her younger sister arrived shortly after. According to the clan's rules of conduct for those kinds of situation, they were not supposed to exchange any words before the match, so they both just stood there awkwardly, trying to avoid each other's eyes.

Hinata had a strange, uncomfortable feeling on the pit of her stomach – not exactly what she would call pain, more like it was moving around in her belly restlessly in anticipation. Maybe she was nervous, or afraid. She couldn't tell.

Trying to take her mind off of it, she scanned the crowd for Ko in hopes of gaining a little encouragement, but was unable to find him. She attempted to think nothing of it – perhaps he was merely late – but couldn't help but wonder if something had happened, which only contributed to the insecurity she was already feeling. The itch in her stomach intensified to the point of physical pain.

Then another thought came to distract her from her nervousness. What could her sister be feeling? Honestly curious, Hinata turned to look at Hanabi, something she'd been trying to avoid doing, and examined her. However, unlike her older sister, Hanabi had already perfected her Hyuga mask of impassiveness. Her expressionless face was a solid stone wall Hinata could not break through.

She worried about her little sister.

Hinata and Hanabi had been very close when they were younger. When their father was busy with clan matters and their mother was off on missions, it was Hinata who took care of baby Hanabi. They played together, taught and helped each other like true sisters, and were both very happy.

After their mother Miharu had passed away, they had been there to wipe each other's tears and help Hiashi overcome his sorrow.

After Hinata had grown old enough to start training with her father, her sister had been her rock. Only Hanabi's loving support had allowed her to endure Hiashi's harsh training sessions without breaking down and crying herself to sleep every night.

But eventually, Hanabi too grew older, and their father, frustrated with his older daughter's weakness, immediately started training _her_ instead, hoping that she would prove to be better than her sister.

And he had gotten what he had hoped for. Hanabi surpassed Hinata in every way possible: she was more skilled with the Gentle Fist, better at politics, hid her emotions faster and more thoroughly, everything Hiashi could have wanted.

Eventually, Hinata began to notice some changes in her sister's behavior. Hanabi admired her father very much, but she had misunderstood his attitude and the reasons behind it, so, in an attempt to mimic him, she had only gotten colder, more ruthless and indifferent. Hinata had insisted in their relationship, tried to play with her sister from time to time, but eventually Hanabi even began to act like she was superior, above petty child's play, she, a five year old girl. They had slowly grown apart to the point of not even talking to each other. Seeing their father repeatedly scold Hinata because of her many failures, Hanabi had ultimately given up o kindness and compassion, erroneously assuming that those were the reasons why her sister was unable to live up to Hiashi's expectations.

This led Hinata to ask herself what her sister thought of their fight. Hanabi was almost a stranger to her now. Did she see the match as her duty, maybe an opportunity to rise higher in her father's consideration? Was she – hopefully not – actually looking forward to beating her sister, thus proving to the whole clan that she was far superior, far more worthy?

And although she tried to keep herself from doing it, so as not to be disappointed if she was proven wrong, she hoped that Hanabi also didn't want to fight her sister. Maybe their father had also threatened her with a punishment of some sort, maybe she didn't want to raise a hand against someone she had been through so much with. They had sparred before, yes, but never before so many people, never with such dire consequences. This was very different.

Hinata's thoughts were interrupted by the timely arrival of the Head of the Hyuga clan, signaling that the match was about to begin. She looked around again, but Ko was still nowhere to be found. However, she had no time to ponder on that then.

Hiashi took his place amongst his clansmen and raised his hand. Everyone instantly went silent.

"Hinata, Hanabi, please step forward."

His daughters took a few steps towards each other. Before the fighting started, it was tradition to greet the opponent with a respectful bow. As they did so, they gazed into each other's eyes. Hanabi's expressionless mask broke and she whispered to her sister, "I'm sorry."

They rose, turned around, walked back a few steps and faced each other again, now at a considerable distance. So Hanabi didn't want to fight her after all! Albeit relieved, Hinata hadn't failed to notice a slight twinge of arrogance in her little sister's voice and eyes. She was not just apologizing for fighting, she was apologizing ahead for _defeating_ her.

Hinata gulped as Hiashi lowered his hand. "You may begin."

For a few seconds, the two girls just stood there, looking at each other. Then Hanabi took the initiative and lurched forward.

Hinata immediately assumed a defensive stance. A couple of steps away from her, Hanabi opened her hand, pointing the palm at her sister, and struck. Her first blows were slow and rather sloppy and Hinata dodged them easily. Hanabi was just testing her, evaluating her abilities.

Well, she'd give her something to evaluate.

The older girl jumped back to put some distance between herself and her opponent and moved switched to the offensive. She directed her left hand at Hanabi's chest, who, as expected, effortlessly dodged with a quick sideways step. Her arm, however, was now right in the path of Hinata's stronger right hand, which was already flying towards its objective.

But Hanabi was quick. She moved her arm out of the way, grabbed Hinata's striking hand by the wrist, immobilizing it, and used her other palm to hit her sister twice in the abdomen, bending her upper body backwards until her hands could rest on the ground immediately after to avoid the counterstrike. Then, taking advantage of the momentum, she lifted her feet, kicking Hinata in the chin and moving into a perfect handstand. Hinata was thrown back by the blow and, as she rose to her feet again, rubbing the spot she'd been hit in – luckily, Hanabi had failed to get to any vital ones – her sister was already standing normally and waiting for her.

Hinata had not counted on that degree of flexibility. To be able to use it in the middle of a battle was even more impressive. Hanabi was clearly stronger than she had expected. She had to kick it up a notch. As she brought her hands together for some hand seals, her sister immediately caught on and copied her. Hinata noticed that, despite her younger age, she was using the exact same number of seals as her.

"**Byakugan!"** They intoned in unison. Some of the Hyuga in the crowd moved to get a better view, some others activated their dojutsu as well. Only then was the match truly starting. Now able to see the chakra circulatory system, each girl would deliver blows more precise and dangerous.

Hinata decided to surprise her sister by attacking first. If she could somehow deactivate the tenketsu that allowed the passage of chakra to Hanabi's eyes, her Byakugan would be rendered useless. However, it would be no easy task. Every Hyuga learned that their eyes and face were the most important parts of their body to protect at the very beginning of their training.

She ran towards Hanabi and, remembering one of the first katas taught to Hyuga children, launched a basic, straight forward palm thrust against her sister's chest with her right hand. When she moved to defend herself, Hinata spun on the spot and stretched out two fingers in her left hand, directing them at Hanabi's neck. She could see the tenketsu she needed to disable shine with the flowing chakra, bright as day, and for a moment she thought she'd be able to do it and end the fight right there and then. But her sister was fast to react, even if she _had_ been taken by surprise by Hinata's attack, and ducked. Hinata's fingers brushed lightly against her falling hair, but nothing more.

Desperate to land at least one hit, she spun around a second time to gain momentum and delivered a strong kick to Hanabi's head, sending her skidding across the courtyard, but as she picked herself up, Hinata saw she'd managed to use her hands to partially block, softening the blow.

"You will not get me with tricks like those a second time." Hanabi warned, then, without giving her opponent time to brace herself, sped forward, determined to stay on the offensive. She jumped into a complex series of fast jabs which Hinata could barely avoid. The pattern was too irregular for her to block. Naturally, blocking the Gentle Fist a much harder and more delicate task than blocking any other fighting style, since one couldn't simply move their hands in front of the blow. To effectively parry a Juuken strike, one would have to stop the movement of the user's hands by grabbing their arm or wrist – carefully, so as not to be touched; in the correct spots, even the slightest brush could cause serious internal damage – or divert it somewhere else. As such, unable to predict where the next attack would come from and to find a suitable opening for a counter-attack, Hinata was forced to keep dodging. If Hinata hadn't known of the extensive training Hanabi had had to learn how to control her emotions, she would've said that the kick she'd taken seemed to have enraged her, for her previous kindness appeared to have left her and she was clearly a lot more committed to the match.

Her natural flexibility allowed her to bend her body in more ways than it was common, even for a kunoichi, but she knew that, if the situation did not change, she would soon tire herself out, leaving her at her sister's mercy.

She had to strike back, turn the tables, so she paid special attention to Hanabi's movements, trying to find something she could use against her, an imperfection, a flaw, a slip-up.

Finally, after leaning her entire upper body backwards to escape a particularly vicious blow, she saw it: Hanabi had put too much strength into the strike and when she missed, she'd lost her balance. Eager to gain the upper hand, Hinata got back up quickly and aimed two fingers at Hanabi's shoulder, hoping to disable one of the tenketsu responsible for carrying the chakra to the eyes.

Hanabi, however, was well aware of the opening she had purposely created and, smirking mentally, regained her footing and ducked. Hinata was once again surprised by her actions, giving her younger sister time to hit four important tenketsu in the heiress' stomach before delivering a brutal kick to her left knee, making her scream in pain after the snap it gave, and jumping backwards to put some distance between the two of them before her opponent could strike back.

Hinata panted heavily as she staggered on her spot. Hanabi's kick had bent her knee in an unnatural angle and she could swear she had heard something crack. Hesitantly, she lifted her right leg, trying to see if her left one could withstand all her weight, but she instantly regretted it. There was an explosion of pain in her knee, which quickly gave in, making her crumple down to the ground.

Amongst the other Hyuga, Hiashi watched his eldest daughter get back on her feet with concern, and it must have been noticeable on his face for a second, because a clan elder next to him placed a hand on his shoulder and said, "You did nothing wrong, Hiashi-sama. She required punishment. This is her punishment."

Her left leg trembling under her body, Hinata managed to slowly get back up. When she looked back to Hanabi, she found that her sister was on the move again, and dangerously close to her.

To her credit, she was able to react in time and, when her sister thrust her palm forward, she stepped back to avoid it, not realizing she would be standing on her bad knee. That time around, she managed not to fall down, but still winced in pain, letting out a small grunt. That was more than enough for the younger girl. She took the golden opportunity to hit five more tenketsu around those she had previously closed, two on her right leg and one on the damaged knee.

The last one was by far the most agonizing of them all. The pain of it coursed through her entire body. Her whole leg seemed to just give up and shut down and she fell down as her sister backed away once more.

What had she been thinking? Of course that there was no way she would ever defeat her far more skilled sibling. She had been fooling herself the entire time. All of her training with Naruto had been utterly useless, not because of him, of course, he had played his role to the best of his abilities, but because of her. It had been her fault. Looking backwards, she realized that when it came right down to it, she had failed to accomplish anything.

Hanabi closed in again. Hinata tried to defend herself, but lying on the ground with a useless leg limited her mobility and she took several more strikes. As more and more of her tenketsu were closed, she began to feel the effect of her little sister's Gentle Fist. Her chakra was becoming harder to control, more chaotic, and there were parts of her body it was already unable to reach.

She should never have defied her father. She had dared to disobey him and now she was paying the price for her foolishness. She wouldn't be allowed to see Naruto again… but… despite how much it pained her, maybe it was better that way. Naruto didn't need a failure like her to drag him down. To be removed from Team 7 would most likely be nothing but beneficial for him, Sasuke, their sensei and whoever would replace her. Maybe she should just quit being a kunoichi altogether. Her father had always made it quite clear that he didn't think she had ever been fit for the role.

Hanabi moved in again and, finding that Hinata wasn't putting up nearly as much of a fight as before, had no difficulty in landing several more blows. A few finger jabs to her shoulders, neck and face quickly disabled her Byakugan and some more hits to her injured knee rendered her incapable of fighting any further.

And with a sigh of resignation, Hinata collapsed, defeated.

* * *

The knock on the door made the Hokage lift his eyes from his troublesome paperwork. "Come in." He said.

Immediately, Kakashi, Gai and Asuma walked inside, followed by some other jonin who had surely been helping them, amongst which he saw Yuuhi Kurenai and Ebisu. Some of them were carrying bodies, which they carefully laid on the floor in front of the Sandaime's desk. "You told us to report directly to you." Kakashi said. "But I am afraid we did not succeed in our mission. We dug around, and managed to find what I think are all the traitors, but we weren't capable of preventing them from committing suicide. Complex seals, destructive ninjutsu, poison capsules hidden in their teeth, even throwing themselves off of buildings, whatever the method, they always did so before we could capture them. We did not sleep, we did not rest, but we still failed our mission. I am sorry, Hokage-sama."

The Sandaime looked through the bodies on the floor. There were a total of six. Their forehead protectors had all been taken off, and, save for one kunoichi who had it on her left arm, they all wore the same strange tokens that the men who had attacked Naruto did, only made of a different, orange metal, maybe bronze. One of them he found particularly interesting, the corpse of a chunin that worked in the village Archives, probably the one who had planted the false information on Iwaro and his group. "That's alright, Kakashi. We might not have gotten the intelligence we needed, but at least we managed to rid Konoha of these traitors. Take them to the morgue and have a team working on them. We might squeeze something out of them yet, but I wouldn't get too hopeful. After that, you may get some well deserved rest."

Kakashi nodded and the shinobi picked up the bodies and exited the office, leaving Hiruzen alone thinking of what to do. They had lost their only lead. He only hoped that, whatever it was, that organization was done with Naruto.

* * *

A Hyuga appointed as the referee stepped forward, grabbed Hanabi's hand and lifted it above her head. "This match has ended. Hinata Hyuga is no longer able to carry on. Hanabi Hyuga is therefo-" He suddenly went quiet mid-sentence. All Hyuga with their Byakugan activated moved out of instinct and, although they did not need to, since their dojutsu granted them a 360 degree field of vision, turned their heads in the same direction, away from the courtyard where the combat was taking place.

The sound of yelling reached Hinata's ears, even if she could not understand the words. But the source drew closer and closer and soon, an orange-clad blond boy burst from the crowd, followed closely by two guards, his brightly colored jumpsuit contrasting with the white or black robes of most Hyuga.

"Hinata-chan!" He shouted, running from the pursuing guards the entire time. "Hinata, dammit! What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"N-Naruto-kun…" She whispered softly, lifting her head to look at him. She immediately wished she had not done so, however, for the look of disappointment on his face was even more painful to her than her knee.

"Have you given up already? Have I taught you nothing? Hinata-chan! I'm talking to you! You might not win, but I'll be damned if you go down like _that_!"

She prepared to whisper back a weak, "I'm sorry for being so weak…" or something of the sort, even if she knew he wouldn't hear her, but he seemed to anticipate her argument.

"And don't you dare say you're weak! I won't have any of that!" He yelled. One of the guards sneaked up from behind him and grabbed him, but he wriggled out of his grasp with ease. At that time, most Hyuga had already recovered from the shock. In general, annoyance and disapproval were etched across their faces, but they did not move to stop the boy, preferring to let the guards take care of business. "Everybody has weaknesses, but they don't beat themselves up as much as you because of it! It's the ability to overcome them that grants true strength! Get up! Come on! I know you! I know what you can do, it's so much more than you let on! Show them as well! Show them you're able to work hard and overcome your weaknesses!"

She shook her head. He did not understand.

"Come on!" He repeated. "Stop feeling sorry for yourself and do something about it! Don't you think I know what that's like? I used to feel the same way… but then I realized that pointless self-pity only makes things worse! You can't let people step all over you like that! I can't keep coming through for you, you need to start standing up for yourself! You're stronger than this! You're a strong kunoichi who's only now starting to find her confidence and true power! Don't let these stuck-up know-it-all bastards take that away from you!" There were many gasps of shock in the crowd at the insult. Some of the Hyuga decided to join the action and jumped to chase after the boy along with the guards. "I have faith in you! I trust you! Show me you're better than thi-!" At that moment, three men jumped him. Two of them grabbed his arms behind his back and the third one put his hand over his mouth so all she could heard were muffled yells. He struggled, but couldn't break free.

As they dragged Naruto away, the biggest man, the one covering his mouth, said, "That's enough, brat, you've caused enough disturbances here tod- Ouch!" He suddenly screamed in pain and removed his hand from Naruto's face. He had bitten the man hard enough to draw blood. He spat the red liquid to the ground and yelled for the last time, "We trust you, Hinata-chan!"

After hearing the word "we", Hinata turned her head to the spectators once more and saw Ko discretely making his way through the crowd. He noticed she was watching him and shot her a brief but bright, confident smile before disappearing behind two Hyuga women.

Naruto's words had filled her with confidence, but also saddened her a bit, although he had not lied. She did feel sorry for herself too much, and that had to change. And the confidence she needed to feel, it had to start coming from herself rather than others. Naruto could only help her so much. The rest was entirely up to her. To follow his teaching or not… it was her choice.

"I-I am not d-defeated yet…" She mumbled, drawing everyone's attention back to her as she sat up. "The m-match has n-not yet ended…" She tried to stand, but found it was impossible with her knee in its current state, so she crossed her legs with much effort, for comfort and better stability, and raised her open palms in a defensive position.

The referee lowered Hanabi's hand and stepped back, saying, "Finish this." And the younger girl darted forward once more.

Halfway through the sequence of seals necessary to activate the Byakugan, Hinata remembered that Hanabi had closed her tenketsu, preventing her from using her dojutsu. That considerably reduced her already slim chances of somehow winning the fight.

Without the Byakugan, there was little she could do. Sure, she could still throw random palm thrusts in hopes one would hit home. Attacks like that could still be dangerous, providing, that is, that she was able to walk. However, in her condition, Hanabi would easily dodge all of her blows and strike much more accurately. Her younger sister's next attack would certainly be decisive, and there was nothing Hinata could do to avoid it.

It was inevitable: if Hanabi managed to get close enough to engage in melee combat, all would be lost. As such, Hinata had to prevent her approach in some way. Ninja tools had not been allowed, or she would have made use of kunai and shuriken. Other than that, she had no ranged attacks whatsoever, and therefore no possibility of keeping Hanabi at distance.

* * *

_"Alright, this one seems like an easy jutsu, suitable for beginners." Naruto said, going over one of the scrolls they had borrowed from Iruka. He read through the details, confirming that it was indeed a basic technique, meant to be used as an introduction to Raiton ninjutsu. "Yes, I think we'll start with this one."_

_Hinata nodded, eager to finally learn a lightning technique. Above them, sitting on a tree branch, Ko observed them approvingly._

_"Before we go on, however, I'd like to pass on some more advice regarding ninjutsu. I find this particular one to be especially helpful." Naruto suggested. Hinata nodded a second time. "Now, we here in Konoha have many competent ninja, as I'm sure you know, and there are many more strong ones all around the world. However, some of them, too many, actually, lack something crucial, something you should always remember. You see, many shinobi tend to forget where their true strength lies in. They get too caught up with flashy ninjutsu and taijutsu – don't get me wrong, though, those arts are certainly very important and will likely give you an upper hand in battle – but they ignore the things that differentiate ninja from simple warriors, like stealth and subtlety!_

_There was a time when a ninja was, above all, an assassin, and despite the fact that, since then, things have changed and ninja are now used as field warriors as well, stealth, subtlety, silent killing, the element of surprise, secrecy, deception, those are still our most dangerous weapons. If a certain shinobi happened to get the chance to complete a mission by discretely slipping some poison into the target's drink, would they reveal themselves and engage in open combat?_

_Just never forget: Don't be afraid to use every trick up your sleeve in a fight, or you'll eventually be defeated by an opponent who does._

_Sometimes, a single kunai can work as well as a fireball, if you use it correctly._

_Information is power. Know your enemy and don't let them know you._

_And finally, even the greatest opponents can fall if you catch them by surprise. It's harder to defend yourself you never see it coming."_

_"Thank you for the advice, N-Naruto-kun." Hinata said to indicate she had been listening. From his seat up above, Ko looked at the boy, surprised. It had been wise advice for one so young._

_"Eheh, you're welcome! Now let's get started!"_

* * *

"To catch her by surprise…" Hinata thought. But she had nothing that Hanabi wouldn't already be expecting… Except for…

No. That was impossible. She had never been able to do it. But then again…

_"Don't be afraid to use every trick up your sleeve."_

… Wasn't it her only option left?

Hesitantly, she tried to draw on her chakra, coat her hands in it as if preparing for a Gentle Fist strike, but the closed tenketsu all over her body made the task impossible. Her chakra swirled around her body, not obeying her, out of control.

_"Out of control…"_ But perhaps she could use that to her advantage. _"It needs to be fast."_ She thought, and the energy circulating inside her sped up. Maybe she could pull it off after all.

_"It needs to be wild."_ But too much was too much. She wouldn't be able to use her chakra if she couldn't at least get it to where she wanted it to. Slowly, she focused and started to exact control over it. Testing the waters. Calmly trying to find a way around her damaged chakra circulatory system. Maybe she still had a chance.

_"It needs to be uncontrollable."_ Balance. That was what it was all about, actually. She needed enough control to direct, mold and release the chakra, but also freedom for it to behave the way it was supposed to. Maybe…

_"Fast, wild, uncontrollable. Fast, wild, uncontrollable."_ With a deep breath, she allowed the energy to run a little wilder until it was exactly how she needed it. She could feel it now, almost instinctively. Carefully, so as not to break her concentration, she brought her hands together. She would no longer be pushed around. She would no longer be looked down upon. She would show everyone what she was truly capable of doing.

_"Fast, wild, uncontrollable."_ The hand seals were simple. She had lost count of the number of times she had practiced them. They came easily and swiftly. She was done feeling sorry for herself. She was a member of Team 7, she was the heiress of the Hyuga clan, she was a capable kunoichi…

Hanabi was not worried about her sister's hand seals, assuming it was only a different sequence for the Byakugan, since her sensei had been very clear when he'd specified that Hinata was not capable of performing any techniques other than her kekkei genkai and basic Academy material, and she continued forward without hesitation.

_"Fast…"_ She… _"Wild…"_ Was… _"Uncontrollable."_ Hinata Hyuga! "**Raiton: Hikui Denatsu!** (Lightning Style: Low Voltage!)"

She felt a wave of renewing energy surging through her, she could hear the crackle of lightning as her perfectly transformed chakra ran through her body. She opened her palms and thrust them forward, the motion required for the technique. One single bolt of blue lightning erupted from her hands, faster than she could follow. Hanabi had absolutely no time to react and the bolt hit her straight in the chest mid-run. The D-rank jutsu wasn't sufficiently powerful to cause any serious or permanent damage, but it was more than enough to knock out the younger, smaller girl.

As Hanabi slumped to the ground, a chilly, uncomfortable silence fell upon the Hyuga courtyard, broken only by the panting of Hinata, who did not dare move, her arms still outstretched, almost not believing she had done it. All eyes were on the younger of the sisters, as if expecting her to stand back up and keep battling, but she did not do so.

The referee stepped forward once more, albeit reluctantly, he too surprised by the sudden twist in the match. He did not lift Hinata's hand like he had done before with Hanabi's, and simply announced, "Hanabi Hyuga is no longer able to fight. Hinata is victorious."

The spectators did not cheer or applaud, nor had she expected them to, and amongst the entire crowd she could only see one smile, Ko's, but she was already happy. Before she could take a proper look at her father, however, concerned Hyuga medics surrounded her and started examining her injured knee. A few others carried her sister away on a stretcher.

"Hiashi-sama." A Hyuga elder whispered to the clan head. Most of the other clan members were already dispersing, eagerly discussing the surprising outcome of the match in small groups. "That was certainly an interesting match, do you not agree?" All he got in reply was a stiff nod from Hiashi, but that did not discourage him. "I do not mean to question your judgement, Hiashi-sama, but… surely you do not intend to allow your daughter to continue seeing that demon boy…."

Hiashi turned his head and stared quizzically at the elder, one of his eyebrows raised. "Was I not clear when I stated that that prohibition would only come into effect had she lost the battle?"

The elder blinked. That had not been the answer he had been waiting for. "Well, yes, but… I mean… Certainly you expected her to lose… You are not to blame, Hiashi-sama, she surprised everyone with her… say, dishonorable deviation from the customary Hyuga fighting style, but the boy is a rotten apple, a bad influence! You saw it yourself, Hiashi-sama, he broke into the compound with no respect for the clan, he is loud, obnoxious…"

"Where you see a 'dishonorable deviation'…" Hiashi interrupted. "I see a clever alternative." Did others really think of him that way? The path of the ninja was always a dark one. He had killed before, and cheated, and lied, but he had always prided himself in being a good leader and an honorable, respectful man who kept true to his word. But apparently, the image that came across to others was an entirely different one. It was the image of a man greedy for power, willing to resort to anything for 'the sake of the clan', the image of a cruel, merciless man, even to his daughters, of a man who did not think twice before going back on his promises. "And where you see a loud, obnoxious rotten apple, I see a young boy who is loyal, courageous, trustworthy, persistent and willing to go the distance for a comrade. My previous assumptions about Uzumaki Naruto were wrong. I am glad that my eldest daughter has such a friend." He then turned his back on the befuddled man and walked away.

* * *

"We managed to repair the fracture quite easily. Even so, you should use these crutches for a couple of days and avoid putting too much strain on that leg for some time."

"Thank you, doctor." Hinata said. The medic-nin nodded back at her and walked out of the room, leaving her alone. Not two seconds had passed when the window swung open and a certain boy barged in. "N-Naruto-kun!"

"Still stuttering, Hinata-chan?" He teased playfully. "Konoha wasn't built in a day, I guess. Ko told me what happened, and that's awesome! I'm so proud of you!" She blushed in response. "Listen, I'm sorry about what I said, I-"

"N-no, don't be. It was t-true, all of it, and I n-needed to hear it. Thank you, N-Naruto-kun, for helping me a-and being there for m-me…"

Naruto was about to reply when the sound of footsteps reached their ears. Certain that he wouldn't be welcome in the Hyuga complex, especially after his little stunt, he immediately reacted by bolting out of the room through the window. Moments later, Hiashi opened the door and walked in.

"F-father." Hinata greeted, sitting up and bowing. "Is Hanabi-chan a-alright?"

"Hinata." He answered, and couldn't help but to smile slightly. It was typical of Hinata to be so concerned about others, especially her younger sister. "Hanabi is fine. The doctors said she has sustained no serious injuries, but I believe she is still unconscious. You really did a number on her. But I thought I heard voices…" He looked around knowingly. "You can come out, Naruto-san. I want you to listen to what I have to say as well."

"Damn it." The blond muttered, sticking to the wall just below the window, outside, with chakra, before reluctantly going back inside, expecting some sort of scolding.

Mentally, Hiashi flinched at the boy's choice of words, but did his best not to show it. Instead, he pulled out two chairs and said, "Please, have a seat." Naruto raised an eyebrow, confused, but accepted the Hyuga leader's invitation and sat down. "This is not easy to say…" The older man sighed, but it was time to swallow his pride and make things right. "But I am sorry."

"Uh?" Naruto and Hinata said at the exact same time, which elicited a sad chuckle from Hiashi. He definitely needed to redeem himself.

"Hinata, my daughter, I apologize for the way I treated you. In my desperation to make you stronger, I failed to see the error of my ways. I did not provide you with the encouragement you needed, unknowingly contributing to your lack of determination and self-confidence, which I naively blamed on anyone but myself. I mistook your kindness for softness and your reluctance to hurt others as weakness, and I see now that I was wrong. I failed you, Hinata, as a clan leader, as a sensei and, most importantly, as a father." Hinata listened with her mouth wide open and her eyes watery. At that moment, everything else was gone, the whole world, even Naruto, there was only her father, herself and the words he spoke. "We Hyuga, we take so much pride on our all-seeing eyes, but it is too often that we fail to see that which is right under our noses. I thought you were weak, and unworthy, but it was quite the opposite, and I was a fool for not noticing the amount of strength it took for you to endure your mother's de-" His voice failed him then. He seemed unable to say it. "As I recall, she also had a lightning affinity... and still maintain your compassionate nature. I am proud of you, Hinata, I believe in you and I always will. I just regret not doing so in the past. I hope you can forgive me my daughter."

Then there was a moment of meaningful silence in which both Naruto and Hiashi watched Hinata trying to contain her tears, all three of them perfectly still. It didn't take long for her to reach her breaking point, in which she allowed herself to cry freely and launched herself forward into her father's arms, enveloping him in the tightest hug she could manage, sobbing into his shoulder. He gladly returned the embrace, holding her until she had pulled herself together and he could talk to the boy.

"And as for you, Naruto-san, I am also sorry. For a man so proud of his insight, I was too quick to judge based on exterior appearances and take you for the bratty, misbehaved kid most people see you as. While I can safely say I did nothing to harm you in the past, I am afraid I did nothing to help you either, which is also inexcusable, choosing to sit idly as you withstood abuse from the villagers all by yourself. But more importantly, I wish to thank you. You did what I could not. You helped my daughter retrieve her lost confidence and determination, which I had sadly played a part in taking from her. You helped her grow stronger as a kunoichi and as a person, to overcome any obstacles and press on even as many stood against her. You helped her prove herself to her family and myself, making me realize all that I had done wrong. I am truly grateful to you, and rest assured that I do not plan on forbidding her from seeing you."

"Uhm… Thank you, Hyuga-san…" Naruto replied hesitantly, not quite sure of what to say.

But Hiashi was not done yet. Regardless of all of his mistakes, he was still Hinata's father and, as such, it was his job to look out for her. Besides, he didn't want the boy to feel _too_ comfortable around him just yet. He had, after all, to salvage at least _some_ of his reputation. "But watch yourself around my daughter, boy. You can be certain that I will follow your every action together from up close. No step will go unseen, no word will go unheard, no misdeed will go unpunished. If you hurt her in any single way, it will surely reach my ears, and when it does, believe me, you will be held responsible. Do you understand?"

"Y-yes, sir." The boy stammered, and gulped. Hiashi smirked. Mission accomplished.

"Excuse me, Hiashi-sama, but this girl claims she has a message for Hinata-sama." Came a voice from the door. It was the same medic-nin from before, and, behind him, a small girl with bright pink hair, who wasted no time in entering the room.

"Hyuga-sama." She greeted with a bow, mindful of her manners. Then her eyes shifted to the bed Hinata sat on, and the orange-clad boy next to her, whose presence surprised her. "Naruto? What are you doing here? I was going to your apartment next."

"Sakura." The two other genin said in unison.

"What happened to you, Hinata, are you alright?" She asked, curious, then quickly shrugged it off, reminding herself of the reason she was there. "You'll have to tell me on the way. Hokage-sama has summoned all of this year's rookie genin to his office immediately. Can you walk?"

As a response, Hinata grabbed her crutches and stood up. It wasn't too difficult, and her leg almost didn't hurt at all. "Good. We should be on our way."

"Allow me to escort you to the entrance." Hiashi suggested, and, seeing Naruto head towards the window, quickly added, "No, Naruto-san. You will come with us, it is quite alright. Actually, walk by my side. I want to make sure everyone sees it."

* * *

Everyone else from the other two teams, Team 8 and Team 10, was already there when Naruto, Sakura and Hinata arrived.

"Ah, good, you are finally here. I have something very important to announce." The Hokage said happily. "As I'm sure you know, the Chunin Exams are coming up, and while none of your senseis have given you the registration sheets yet, they have discussed it with me and revealed their interest in having you sign up for them. The Chunin Exams are an excellent opportunity for a village to show off their most promising and talented shinobi. Those who succeed in doing so invariably experience a staggering increase in business, and that is why you will be assigned this training mission. For three to four days, you are to leave the village to a nearby training camp, where you will undergo intense preparation for these exams, to ensure the maximum success rate possible. Now, your jonin sensei have recently completed a very tiring mission and are therefore unable to accompany you, but I have arranged for four of my best ANBU, who have had teaching experience before, to replace them during this time. I can assure you you will be in good hands."

Naruto's eyes lit up. He had a feeling he knew who those ANBU were. "That's awesome, oji-san! When do we get to go?"

"They'll be expecting you at the front gates in two hours, actually, but you are not going, Naruto." Hiruzen answered.

"WHAT? Why?"

"Well, Naruto…" The Third replied slowly with a smirk. "Because during that time, you will be training… with me."

* * *

**End of Chapter 10**

* * *

And the end of this chapter marks the end of this short Arc as well. I hope you all enjoyed it.

This last part was dedicated to all of those who were beginning to complain about the fact that Hiruzen hadn't trained Naruto yet, as opposed to the title of this story. Relax, people. If I created a story entitled "Naruto saves the world." And had Naruto save the world in the first chapter, it wouldn't be much of a story, now would it? My point being that this is just the beginning. Expect more.

I had a lot of fun writing this chapter, actually, especially the little bits about Hinata's family's past. Many of you were saying you hated Hiashi after the last chapter. Maybe it was my mistake, but I never intended to turn him into a villain, just an overprotective father with messed up ideals. He did punish that other Hyuga for his arrogance and all. What do you think about the Hyuga Head now? Is he better?

And what about that manga, uh? Some crazy stuff going on there, am I right? I mean… (SPOILER) Baby Bijuu? That was weird, yet sort of adorable.

I don't think I have anything else to say, except my usual thank you to everyone who reviews, favorites and even reads "The Third's Fourth Pupil". Thank you all very much!


	12. Chunin Exam Training Camp

**Arc Four: The Light Shines Through**

* * *

**Chapter 11: Chunin Exam Training Camp**

* * *

"I'm lost. Seriously. I mean, I know the Hokage is supposed to be the strongest shinobi in the village and all, but I honestly think that the current one might be going a bit senile." The man in the hare mask said, earning him a smack to the head from the woman wearing an owl one.

"Be respectful." She admonished.

"Ouch! I was only kidding, alright?" The same man complained. No one ever got his attempts at humor. "My point is, what did we do to deserve this kind of punishment? Training that other brat was enough as it was! We paid our dues for every mistake we might have made in the past, yet he sees it fit to dump another load of kids on us! Worst of all, he has the nerve to act like he was actually rewarding us or something!"

"Oh, stop being such a drama queen." Owl said dismissively. "It doesn't fit your character. I actually like being a sensei, and I think you do too. I bet that deep down you're just a big softy. You're just too much of a stuck up idiot to admit it."

"Have you listened to yourself, woman?" Lion intervened. "Hare having feelings? Inconceivable. Naruto beating all the three Legendary Sannin at the same time is something actually much more likely to happen."

"Say what you will. My opinion has not changed." Owl replied.

"Awww, Hare _wuvs_ children!" Lion teased.

But Hare paid him no attention. "Wolf?" He prompted his other teammate, who had remained silent throughout the entire conversation. "Are you alright?"

Wolf had stopped walking, her head turned upwards to stare at the sky, where the sun had begun to shine through the dark, menacing clouds, progressively bathing the village in light. "Uh? Oh, sure, I was just… I was just looking at the sky."

"Ah, it looks like the sun has finally revealed itself." Owl stated happily. "I'm glad we'll have good weather today. That's got to be a good omen."

Wolf did not reply, but the expression on her face clearly indicated that she didn't agree entirely. "Shouldn't we get going?"

* * *

The genin inside the Hokage's office were in a frenzy, asking questions left and right without pausing for an answer, trying to make themselves heard over all the other conversations, momentarily forgetting where they were, and in whose presence. However, all it took was for Hiruzen to raise one hand to effectively silence them, restoring order to the room. "You may ask any questions that you might have, provided you do so calmly and in an orderly fashion."

Shino looked around at his fellow shinobi and, seeing that no one took the initiative, decided to do so himself. "And exactly what kind of training will we be undergoing, Hokage-sama?"

"Well, that is entirely up to the assigned sensei to decide." Hiruzen replied. "Although knowing them, I'd guess they will focus primarily on improving your weaknesses, so that you are not as vulnerable when the time comes. Believe me, the Chunin Exams are never easy, and this is one very important part of preparation."

Shino nodded, satisfied with the answer, and allowed Shikamaru to speak up. "I have never heard of anything like this before. Is it being done now for the first time?"

"No, it isn't." The Third explained. "That's a good question. We've actually been organizing these events for a considerable amount of years now. We take every newly graduated genin, even those who do not intend to take the exams that year – so that numbers don't grow too much the following years; besides, a ninja is also supposed to be able to memorize information reliably – and send them off to the same training camp accompanied by experienced instructors, usually their jonin sensei or, if they are for some reason unable to go, anyone the Hokage deems capable. Despite the fact that the camp is heavily protected, guarded by seals and surrounded by traps and such, and a considerably short distance from the village, we prefer to keep the whole thing a secret from anyone not involved.

Exposing our young genin, the future of Konoha's forces, like that might prove too tempting an opportunity for other, less than amicable villages to pass on. We are not currently at war with any, but many still bear grudges against us because of conflicts past and, as ninja, they will most likely take any chance they can find to weaken us. Also, we must not forget that sometimes, the genin carry powerful bloodline limits exclusive to the Leaf and that many would do anything to put their hands on, or are children of wealthy merchants or renowned clans, being as such worth a considerable ransom.´

Not that you are in any danger. Your elite ANBU sensei and all the protections I mentioned before should be more than enough to defend you against any squads sent to attack you – should there be any. Plus there's border patrol, which makes sneaking into the Fire Country undetected very difficult, and, of course, taking any action against us in times of peace can lead to many complicated diplomatic conflicts, if not war, which are often too much trouble to deal with and serve to discourage those other villages. Even so, all things considered, the less people who know about this, the better." Shikamaru thanked the Hokage for the answer and went silent, obviously not planning on asking any further questions. "Anything else?" The older man inquired.

There was, in fact, one final doubt running through the minds of most of the children, albeit none dared voice it. None, that is, except for Kiba. "Why does Naruto get to be trained _by you_?" He blurted out, rather inappropriately, the jealousy in his tone easily noticeable. Mortified at her teammate's blatant disrespect towards the leader of all of Konoha, Sakura quickly nudged him in the ribs, causing him to yelp slightly, her wide eyes shifting nervously between him and the Hokage, trying to remind him of exactly where he was. "Uuh… I mean, uh... Hokage-sama." He quickly added after realizing his mistake.

"That is alright." Hiruzen said calmly, appeasing the genin's worries. "In the future, however, Kiba-kun, remember to think before you act, for others might not take it as lightly as I just have." Kiba swallowed and nodded. "I did say you could ask anything, after all. The answer to this is, however… complicated. I should not, and want not, to go into details about this. It is something you might find out by yourself as you grow older. For now, let us just say I owe him this much and leave it at that."

The children stayed silent, the seriousness of the matter not gone unnoticed by any of them.

"Is that all, then?" The Hokage asked. Some of the kids nodded. "Very well. Naruto, I still have some matters to attend to today, but we will begin our training tomorrow, at roughly the same time your friends will. I will send you a messenger with the details later. Until then, you are dismissed. As for the rest of you, two hours should be enough for you to pack your bags and still have lunch. I expect all of you to arrive on time." He instructed, purposely looking at Shikamaru while doing so. "And good luck with your training. I know you will make me and the Leaf village proud."

Taking that as a dismissal, the genin exited the office. "Hey, Hinata-chan!" Naruto called while they walked down the hallway. "After you pack your stuff, how about we head to Ichiraku's for some ramen? We won't be seeing each other for a few days, after all."

Hinata blushed. That day was going quite well for her. "I'd be happy to, N-Naruto-kun."

"Can I come?"

Hinata and Naruto both stopped dead in their tracks. If the latter's eyes could have jumped out of their sockets in disbelief, they would have. As it were, they were simply wide open, contributing to the incredulous look etched upon the boy's face. "Who are you and what have you done to Sasuke?"

"Hn. That joke is grossly overused." The Uchiha replied, looking away from his teammates, already wondering whether asking had been a huge mistake.

"Of c-course you can come, S-Sasuke-kun." Hinata said before Naruto had the chance to retort and possibly ruin the entire moment. She was slightly disappointed she wouldn't get to be alone with her crush as she'd initially hoped, but also glad to be spending time with her whole team, especially because Sasuke rarely ever felt like being with them.

"Hey! If Sasuke-kun's going, I am too!" Ino shouted suddenly. Only then did Team 7 realize that the others had stopped as well to listen to their conversation.

"Uh? Oh, me too!" Sakura added moments after.

"As long as there's food, I'm in!" The 'big-boned' Akimichi happily stated.

"Me and Akamaru aren't going to be left out! You in, Shino?"

"It is only logical. This seems to be a good opportunity to form bonds with fellow comrades of the Leaf."

"This is so troublesome…" Shikamaru moaned, but he too agreed to join in.

* * *

Hiruzen listened to the voices slowly fading away until they could be heard no more. He felt glad that they seemed to be getting along. That would be, after all, fundamental if they happened to work together in the future.

But there were more pressing matters to take care of at that moment. The mysterious spies all over the village, the sudden actions of that unknown organization, it required further investigation, further…

But he found himself unable to concentrate on that for the time being. The Inuzuka boy's question, albeit innocent, had greatly upset him. Usually, the Hokage just tried not to think about it altogether, but sometimes he just couldn't avoid confronting the truth. He was only human, with all the strengths and weaknesses of one, as well as the responsibility of leading an entire ninja village upon his shoulders, an overwhelming weight that had been slowly wearing him out for many years. Often looking up to him and the wise and mighty Hokage, many people overlooked that fact, instinctively assuming he could do no wrong, while in fact it was quite the opposite, as his position of power put him in many complicated situations, where it was too hard to take the right decision and too easy to take the wrong ones. Sarutobi had long assumed that, when one entrusted one's belongings, homes, lives and families to someone else, it was simply much easier to convince oneself that that someone was incapable of error.

As if to prove a point, his brain immediately invoked an image of the day of what was, in his opinion, his biggest mistake to that date: the day he'd let Orochimaru escape the Leaf village unpunished. He sighed, as he always did when he recalled that fateful occurrence.

He was old and tired of the job he had accepted, entirely out of a sense of duty towards the village, for the second time, after the Fourth had died during the Kyuubi attack. It was only natural he made mistakes, but still, that shouldn't serve as an excuse.

In all honesty, after the crying Naruto had been laid on his arms for the first time, still warm from his by then deceased father's embrace, Hiruzen had sincerely concluded that keeping the identity of the boy's parents a secret _was_ the most sensible thing to do, and to the present day, he stood by his decision. Even so, over the years he had begun to doubt himself with increasing frequency as he witnessed the hard life Naruto led. He couldn't help but feel that part of it could've been avoided, by him, no less. The Third had no doubt that, if the village had known about the boy's heritage, a considerable part of its inhabitants wouldn't have treated him at least as badly as they did. Still, the threat of his father's enemies attempting on his life as a form of revenge had been an ever present one. Several small feuds against mainly Iwa and Kumo in the past few years had kept the tension between those villages and Konoha built up high. If Kumo had dared to send a squad of kidnappers to obtain the Byakugan from a three year old girl under the guise of a diplomatic mission, a move that had been frowned upon even amongst other ninja villages, Sarutobi couldn't begin to think what they and Iwa would do to get back at the man who had caused mass casualties amongst their ranks during the last war.

He was still convinced that keeping it a secret was the best thing to do, but there had been times he had almost gone back on that decision. And to add insult to injury, everything he did to try and make the boy's life easier had the nasty habit of eventually coming back to bite him in the butt.

He had transferred a nine year old Naruto to a better orphanage, only to have him kicked out at the age of ten.

He had assigned ANBU to look after the boy, remaining ignorant of the fact that, for a few months, they had not only turned a blind eye to the village's merchants' ridiculous overpricing, they had actually encouraged it.

Realizing that Naruto wasn't being well taught, out of spite, in the Academy, he had changed Iruka to his class, leaving it to the chunin instructor to pick his partner. He had chosen Mizuki.

Looking back on those times, maybe he could have done more to help the boy, but he had had his hands full with Hokage work and… No. He was determined not to make excuses for himself. And there was no point in mulling over the past like that. One of the worst things you could be, Sarutobi reasoned, was an old man filled with regrets. The past was the past and there was nothing he could do to change it. He had to make it up to Naruto while he still could, not feel sorry he hadn't done so before.

And so, with a smirk, he put his boring paperwork aside and got to reading Kakashi's report of his team's mission to Wave Country, his mind already going through the various methods he'd use to mold the boy into the finest shinobi that the Leaf had ever seen.

* * *

"Aaah… That was great! Ichiraku's is the best!" Naruto happily stated, rubbing his stomach in satisfaction. Only Choji had been able to eat as much as him.

"Why did we let him pick the place, again?" Kiba joked, but he had also enjoyed his food.

After a big, invigorating lunch, Naruto had decided to accompany his friends to the village gates. It would be a good opportunity to see his ANBU sensei, whom he had started to miss, again, and besides, it wasn't like he had anything better to do anyway. As their destination came into view, he saw that they had not yet got there. The genin were a few minutes early and it was typical of the ANBU to arrive right on time. Not one second early, not one second late. Even if they were already there, which was likely, they would wait until the right moment to reveal themselves. When inquired about that habit, they usually just said it was 'an ANBU thing'. Naruto inspected his surroundings casually, but quickly grew tired. Even if they _were_ quietly laughing at him in the shadows, there was no way he'd find them. He wasn't _that_ good… yet.

"Hanabi-chan? Ko-san?"

There were, however, people waiting for them there.

"Hello, Hinata-sama." Ko greeted with a smile. "We heard you were leaving for a training mission today and Hanabi-sama wanted to come and say goodbye." Hanabi didn't say anything and kept staring at the ground, embarrassed, instead.

Without looking at her face, Hinata was unable to guess what her sister was feeling. "Hanabi-chan?"

Then Hanabi surprised her by lunging forward and capturing her in a tight hug. Although uncharacteristic, it reminded Hinata of what a seven year old girl was _really_ supposed to act like. She was glad there was still some child innocence left in her sister, and it seemed like Hanabi had gotten tired of playing the emotionless jerk. "I'm sorry, nee-chan…" And that time, she really meant it.

As a reply, Hinata just smiled and returned the hug. By then, all of the other genin had walked on by, with the exception of Naruto, who had stayed behind to wait for his teammate. "How about you, Ko-san? How have you been doing?" The older girl asked. Her bodyguard caught the hidden meaning behind her words. Everyone had seen him enter the compound after Naruto had intruded, and most Hyuga were more than capable of putting two and two together.

"Well, Hiashi-sama and some elders summoned me for a hearing a while ago, while you were away. It did not take long before they discovered what my role had been in all of this." He said, then, anticipating Hinata's questions, continued, before she could speak. "He had no choice but to reprimand and punish me, not in front of the elders and our other clansmen." The young heiress raised her hands to her chest, concerned, but Ko just smirked and went on. "So, until Hiashi-sama no longer deems it necessary, I am to observe all the training you and Naruto-san decide to do in private." He finished with a joyful smile. A smile that Hinata returned, content with her father's clever actions. "But we should be going now. We have business of our own to attend to back at home, is that not right, Hanabi-sama?"

The younger girl nodded, finally letting go of her sister, and the pair said goodbye and walked away in the direction opposite to the gates. Hinata waved at them until they could no longer be seen, marveling at the enormous change her family had undergone. Naruto watched quietly, feeling happy that his friend's life seemed to have taken a turn for the better.

"When you and your girlfriend are done over there, brat, it would be ever so kind of you to join the rest of us." Came a male voice from behind them. Owl resisted her sudden urges to somehow cause Hare pain for ruining the moment. Naruto's cheeks reddened a little, but his blush was nothing compared to that of Hinata, who looked like smoke could come bursting out of her ears at any moment.

"She's not my girlfriend!" Naruto yelled, annoyed, and Hinata couldn't help to feel slightly sad. Was the prospect of having her as a girlfriend so terrible that he felt the need to deny it so vehemently? But before she could go any further she shook off her insecurities, trying to convince herself that he hadn't meant it like that. "Why should I even do what you tell me?" He continued, oblivious to the effect his words had had on his friend. "You're not my sensei anymore."

"Once a sensei, always a sensei, Naruto-kun." Owl replied before Hare got the chance to. "It's nice to see you again." She said, stepping forward and hugging the boy. The other three nodded and mumbled their agreement, but other than a quick pat on the back – Lion also decided to mess up his hair, an annoying habit he'd picked up during their years together – established no physical contact. Owl had always been the most affectionate one.

It was strange, Naruto reasoned, how Owl managed to be the most open one of her group of four, yet the one whose abilities he knew the less of. Granted, she had taught him Math, History and Strategy instead of Illusions, Ninja Techniques and Martial Arts – not that he could claim he knew everything the other three could do other than what they'd taught him and what they'd shown during practice fights – but they had sparred a couple of times and she'd always gotten the better out of him using only the classic Academy style. Not exactly a big accomplishment, of course, considering how weak he was compared to her, and Owl had always liked to cover the most fundamental basics before moving onto different things.

"Ahem!" Lion cleared his throat loudly in an obvious attempt to get the kids' attention. "Brat aside…" He shot Owl, who still kept one of her arms around Naruto, a glare. She didn't seem fazed by her leader's disapproval and squeezed the boy even harder, eliciting jealous looks – albeit directed at different people – from both Kiba and Hinata. "As you should have deducted by now, we are the ones who have been assigned as your sensei for the next four days. You may refer to us by using the names of the animals our masks represent. The camp we'll be travelling to is located some miles southwest of the village. It isn't very far, but since we'll be walking the entire way – it will be a good opportunity to teach you important survival skills – we will only arrive there by nightfall, which doesn't leave us much time for anything. The following day, however, expect intense, harsh training, worthy of a true shinobi of the Leaf. It will be straining and exhaustive, but I fully expect each and every one of you to carry out our orders to the end. Anyone who gives up at any point during those days will be immediately sent back to Konoha. It doesn't matter if you're not a good ninja yet – the purpose of this trip is precisely to correct that – but we have no time for weak-willed individuals. If any of you don't want or don't think you can endure this, you can just turn around and walk away right now, no questions asked. This is the last opportunity you'll have before we push you to your limits. Anyone?"

But no one wanted to look like a coward or a weakling, and despite how apprehensive some of the genin were, no one – not even the lazy Shikamaru – said a word.

Lion smiled behind his mask, but kept his tone of voice the same. "Very well then. You will not come to regret that choice. Follow us." And, guided by the four ANBU, the eight genin exited the village and disappeared amongst the nearby trees. Finding himself alone and unoccupied, Naruto decided to go home. Maybe that day he'd have an early sleep. He was sure he'd need every bit of energy for his upcoming training with the Hokage.

* * *

The sun had vanished in the horizon shortly before the group from the Leaf finally arrived at their destination.

The camp, as it had been referred to, was actually nothing very elaborate. It was composed of four different clearings in the woods surrounding the Leaf Village. There was a small one, where the only two buildings in miles were located – two wooden cabins for them to sleep in; one for the ANBU and the other for the genin – and at which centre the charred remains of a long extinct campfire rested. The other three, where the genin assumed they'd be doing their training, were considerably larger and completely empty, with the exception of a water reservoir, presumably to allow the use of Water Style techniques, in each one. Here and there, one could also spot the occasional burn mark on the ground, as well as several other signs of the usage of destructive jutsu.

"Well, at least we won't have to stay in tents." Kiba commented as he and the rest of the trainees walked into the smaller clearing, each of them holding a bunch of different herbs and plants. Along the way, Owl had taught them everything about the flora of the Fire Country. Which plants were good to eat, which would kill you, which would make you severely ill or serve as laxatives, which could cure diseases or heal wounds, and each one of them had brought a few samples of their favorites to make sure they'd remember what they'd learned.

The ANBU, however, decided that that would've been too easy. "Listen up!" Lion called out as they sat around the ashes. Hare was quick to get some of the stored firewood and ignite it, to light the area. "We'll have a little competition to test your skills and make sure you memorized everything Owl told you. First, you'll need to give me all those plants you have." They did so obediently and as soon as Lion had them all in his hand, he made a quick hand sign and they all went up in flames, much to the distress of many of the younger ninja. "Now, first of all, let me point out that this is _not_ a team exercise or some kind of hidden stratagem to promote teamwork. You are to perform this task individually, without any help from your colleagues." Certain that he had everyone's attention, he moved on to explain the exercise Hare had come up with. "Now for the other rules of our little game: These woods are home to a wide variety of plants and animals. Your dinner tonight will consist solely of what you are able to catch and gather."

Many of the genin gasped or uttered cries of protest, Choji having been the loudest of them all. Hinata stayed silent, but eyed her crutches worriedly.

"You will be given exactly one hour and a half to head into the forest and find dinner, using whatever means or resources you might have at your disposal. You are to be back here on time, even if you didn't manage to find anything." Assuming that was all, Kiba and Sakura stood up, but Lion immediately signaled for them to sit back down. "I haven't finished yet. To spice up this competition, we'll add a little twist. It does not end when you return with the food, not by a long shot. You will then have to poison each other's meals."

Seeing looks of outrage on many faces, he was quick to proceed. "Nothing that could potentially kill you, of course, that goes without saying. But Owl taught you about minor poisons as well, herbs and mixtures that can cause fever, body aches and several other undesirable symptoms. You will have to secretly slip those on your opponents' dinners while taking care not to suffer the same fate. Of course, if you _do_ get distracted and end up throwing up every ten seconds, it usually helps to have a few possible antidotes. This game serves various purposes: it is not only meant to be a reminder of what you were taught today, but also a test of your survival skills, hunting ability, stealth, creativity and foresight. As motivation, those who fall ill won't be allowed to get any sleep until they recover fully and those who manage to avoid it will get an extra thirty minutes of sweet slumber for each of you that gets sick. And believe me, you _will_ treasure that sleep. That's all. Remember, every minute counts. Go!"

And the genin darted off into the dark forest.

* * *

Two hours later, everyone was in the course of preparing their meals as the ANBU observed them to evaluate their performances. Lion watched Choji, who had prepared a campfire in the centre of the clearing, where the previous one had been – Hare had put it out to ensure the kids would have to do all the work themselves. The older man was uncertain of whether the boy had chosen that central, exposed spot as reckless boasting or some sort of clever trap, but he had to give the Akimichi something: he did look intimidating. Choji had succeeded in bringing down a big, adult boar, which was now roasting slowly over the flames. With one hand he pressed a small cloth damp with some sort of chamomile infusion he'd prepared against his many cuts and bruises, which he displayed with a certain sense of pride, and used the other to laboriously crush a few herbs into a mixture he sprinkled onto the cooking meat from time to time.´

Off to the side, Shino was also making some herbal powder, but he did not season his bird with it. Lion's carefully trained ANBU eyes were able to detect a tiny, orderly line of bugs carrying small portions of the mixture in the direction of Shikamaru. Upon coming into the light of the Nara's fire, which he was using to cook a rabbit he'd caught using his Kagemane no Jutsu (Shadow Possession Technique), however, the bugs seemed to panic and immediately scattered. Lion raised one of his eyebrows, surprised. It appeared that the shadow user had predicted that attack and concocted some sort of bug repellent. Realizing that that approach wouldn't work on Shikamaru, Shino redirected his bugs to another target with a slight jerk of his head.

The ANBU leader then watched Ino with curiosity. The girl could've caught something easily with her Shintenshin no Jutsu (Mind-Body Switch Technique), but seemed perfectly happy with her assortment of plants and fruits. Lion shook his head sadly. Another young kunoichi more concerned with her figure than her health. They'd have to change her habits soon.

He looked around for the Hyuga heiress, but it seemed as if she was hidden somewhere.

* * *

Hinata wasn't hidden, not exactly, but given her inability to move around quickly, she felt it was probably best not to move into the offensive, so she had decided to have dinner in the dark – since she had nothing that required cooking, anyway – behind the ANBU's cabin.

She eyed her food sadly. Some nutritious, yet horribly bitter herbs, a handful of chestnuts and as many apples as she'd been able to carry. She silently cursed her injured knee and her crutches. Her Byakugan would've given her the perfect advantage for that task – the ability to see everything in the dark – had she been able to approach any creature fast enough to catch it. But all she could do was stare at the others jealously, and the delicious scent of various roasting meats didn't really do anything to help either. At least she could still use her dojutsu for defense. She was able to detect and take measures against anyone or anything coming her way. Most of the others ought to know that, and perhaps that was why Shino's bugs seemed to stray clear of her.

Noticing someone approaching, she hurriedly shoved her food inside her pockets and grabbed a kunai under her jacket. They weren't allowed to cause any serious injuries, but hopefully it would be enough to scare people off, since she was in no condition to run away.

"Sasuke-kun?"

It was indeed her Uchiha teammate who kept coming closer. She wanted to trust him, but found herself clutching her concealed weapon harder. The boy had had a very easy time during the first stage of the game, his speed and various ninjutsu the perfect tools to catch and cook anything he wanted. When he finally reached her, they just stood there for a few seconds, looking at each other, before he held out one of his arms. Only then did she realize that in his hand was a still warm piece of heavenly smelling rabbit. She was surprised for a moment, then examined it suspiciously. Offering her poisoned mat in an act of fake pity would've been a good plan.

Sasuke knew exactly what she was thinking, and rolled his eyes. "It's perfectly fine, look." He said, proceeding to take a bite himself.

But a ninja had to be cautious, and she still wasn't fully satisfied. "Sasuke-kun… Why a-are you d-doing this?"

The Uchiha boy rolled his eyes again, this time accompanying it with a sigh, and sat down next to her. "You didn't catch anything."

"N-neither d-did Ino." Was he doing that because he _really _pitied her? Did she still come across as such a pathetic loser?

He sighed once more. It was obvious he didn't enjoy that line of questioning. "It's not the same, I…" He took a deep breath. "You're in my team." He said simply, but sincerely.

Hinata sensed the honesty in his words and, finally convinced that Sasuke meant her no harm, smiled and shook her head. "I'm s-sorry, Sasuke-kun, b-but I cannot accept that. I n-need to learn to cope with my weaknesses. I am n-no longer the weak girl I once was."

"Whatever." Sasuke replied, taking another bite of the rabbit. But, contrary to what Hinata had assumed he'd do, he stayed there next to her. "They can forbid me from working with my team, but they can't force me to act against it."

Hinata noticed that her grip on the kunai had loosened. Finally feeling comfortable with Sasuke, she took one of her apples and began to eat. With the Uchiha prodigy right there next to her, no one would dare to attempt anything, and they weren't breaking any rules, since they were by no means working together. "Thank you, Sasuke-kun."

"Hn."

* * *

When they woke up the day after, they saw that their temporary sensei had kept true to their word. It was 8:30 a.m., an hour and a half later than scheduled, and the four ANBU were already waiting outside, along with Kiba, Ino and Choji, who were doing push-ups. They still looked a little pale, but appeared to have recovered from the poison that had been slipped into their meals the previous night.

After a brief breakfast, the ANBU gathered them in the small clearing to inform them of what they'd be doing that day.

"Each two of you…" Wolf explained. "Will be assigned to one of us for the entire day. We each have a different field of expertise to teach – that's one of the reasons we were chosen for this job – and depending on your degree of progress, you might eventually be changed to another subject. Now, to get this over with quickly, Sasuke Uchiha and Kiba Inuzuka…" The dog user grinned in expectation when his name was called, but his good mood quickly faltered as he heard exactly what he had been given. "… Strategy and Tactics, with Owl."

All of a sudden, the Hokage's words about covering their weaknesses sprung up in everyone's heads, and the genin became visibly more anxious.

"Choji Akimichi and Shikamaru Nara, Genjutsu, with me." Wolf continued. Shikamaru sighed in relief. At least he wouldn't have to move around much. Even Choji didn't seem particularly unhappy, since he'd been paired up with his best friend. "Sakura Haruno and Hinata Hyuga, Ninjutsu with Hare. Finally, Shino Aburame and Ino Yamanaka, Taijutsu with Lion. Now that this has been taken care of, let's get going. We have a long day ahead of us."

* * *

That morning, as told to him by the chunin messenger the Third had sent him the night before, Naruto got up early and headed to Training Ground One – the Hokage Training Zone was only used for long stays – to meet the man who'd give him the training he'd been craving for years. He was already there when the blond arrived, dressed in his traditional red and white robes and the hat with the kanji for 'Fire', patiently waiting for the first student he'd accepted for what seemed like ages. When the boy got there, Hiruzen's eyes shifted to the side for an unperceivable second, then he smiled and stepped forward to greet his soon to be pupil.

"Naruto-kun, I hope you're ready for today."

"I've been ready for the past few years, oji-san!"

"Haha, good answer!" Then his voice took on a more serious tone. "Now, understand that what we'll be doing together here in no way invalidates any form of training you might do with Kakashi. He's a very skilled jonin, one of our finest, and we each possess different knowledge to pass on." Naruto nodded frenetically, eager to get to the good part. "Did you warm up before coming, like I instructed?" Another nod. "I expected no less. I thought we should start with something easy today, so I can see for myself exactly how much of the ANBU's report on you is actually true." Naruto lost some of his enthusiasm at the perspective of an easy day, but perked up again when he heard what exactly the Hokage considered 'easy'. "So I'll be teaching you two Earth Style jutsu from my own repertoire, a high C-rank and a high B-rank, which you might find useful."

"Alright! That's awesome, oji-san!" The boy shouted. Learning new techniques always did put him in an overly excited state, especially if one of them was a B-rank, of which he didn't know many. "Can I see them?"

The Sandaime had foreseen the question. "Of course. Will you create an Earth Wall for me, please?" Happy to have the opportunity to show off his skills to the Hokage, Naruto quickly made a four meter tall wall of rock rise from the ground a considerable distance away from Sarutobi. "Now stand back." The older man ordered, bending his knees in preparation as he went through some hand signs and leaned backwards, his cheeks swelling unnaturally. _**"Doton: Doryuu Taiga! **__(Earth Style: Great Mud River)__**" **_He thought, being unable to speak because of the mud accumulating in his mouth, which he then proceeded to spit out, forming a narrow but violent stream that crashed straight into the wall. In his mind, Naruto began to go over the possibilities for such a jutsu. It wasn't very destructive – it hadn't even made a scratch on his defense – but perhaps he could find other uses for it…

But the Hokage was far from finished, and went on to demonstrate his second technique. _**"Doton: Doryuudan! **__(Earth Style: Earth Dragon Bullet)__**" **_At the point where the stream that still flowed out of his open mouth met the ground, the mud began to shift, forming a massive, imposing dragon-like head. At his command, the dragon opened his mouth wide and shot three earth missiles aimed at Naruto's nearly fifty centimeters thick wall, which exploded in a mess of mud and rock shards. When he stopped the jutsu, the boy was literally vibrating in excitement.

"That was fantastic! But…" He assumed a thoughtful pose. "I once saw a technique similar to that first one, but it had a different name… I think they called it Mud Indulgence." He said, referring to the technique the Lion masked man had used on him before his graduation. "How come they have different names if they're the same?"

The Hokage shook his head. "I happen to know that technique, and I can assure you that they're not the same. This is not an uncommon occurrence in the ninja world, however. You see, every jutsu behaves differently for each individual. Those with more chakra, for example, are able to make their techniques bigger and scarier, while those who possess better control prefer to concentrate on accuracy and efficiency. These particular ones, the Mud Indulgence and Great Mud River, were originally one single jutsu. The Mud Indulgence is the result of more chakra and less control – you might have noticed that while the mud was more plentiful, it was also harder to control, causing it to behave more chaotically – while the Great Mud River is more precise, but more difficult to hit, since it is so small. Most jutsu variations are insignificant, and as such, ignored. But these ones differed so much from each other that they eventually ended up being recognized as distinct techniques. Does this answer your question?"

"Yeah, thank you, oji-san. I'll have these two jutsu in the bag by nightfall, you'll see!" He yelled confidently.

"I'm sure you'll do great, Naruto-kun." The Hokage answered with a look to the man spying them from the shadows, but despite the boy's determination, learning two secondary affinity techniques in a day was not an easy task, and he had barely managed to get reasonably proficient at the first one by sunset. Still, it was already a very impressive feat, a sign of the impressive ability to learn that Naruto had, that he had been able to successfully perform it as many times as he had. However, due to his usual lack of control, he had gotten thrown around quite a bit, and would definitely find some bruises in the morning.

Later, he dragged himself to bed, wondering if his friends felt as tired as he did.

* * *

And the answer was 'yes'. Yes, they were, maybe even more so. Their sensei had indeed pushed them to the brink. Even Kiba and Sasuke, who had counted on Strategy and Tactics to be a simple, 'sit down and take notes' type of class, since Owl, unlike the other three, didn't even have a clearing at her disposal, were worn out. It turned out that the reason why she didn't use a clearing was because that particular subject called for practice in other kinds of environments. Deep in the forest, throughout the entire day, patrol squads, merchant caravans or even numerous 'enemy' battalions, composed of Owl and her shadow clones, had waited for the two genin to develop the necessary strategies and battle tactics to accomplish whatever goals they'd been given, and put them into effect. That kind of exercise revealed itself to be both mentally and physically exhausting.

And so, after another 'catch your own dinner' competition, which had ended with the poisoning of Ino, Sakura and, surprisingly, Shino, they could at least enjoy a night of restorative sleep before waking up beaten and sore the morning after.

The assignments didn't change and, by midday, the day was proving to be rather uneventful. However, when everyone gathered at the smaller clearing to have lunch, there were people waiting for them: six ANBU, all of them wearing the traditional feline and bird masks that indicated the lower members of the organization and displaying their Konoha forehead protectors on their arms with pride. As soon as they saw Lion, the leader stepped forward to shake his hand and pull him apart for a conversation away from the children's ears. Wolf, Owl and Hare followed them.

"Not to be rude…" Lion said after greeting the other man. "But what we're doing here has been classified as a top secret assignment. What are you doing here and how did you find us?"

"We apologize for interrupting your mission, sir." The lower ANBU replied, addressing Lion with the proper respect for a superior. "But we're under direct orders from Hokage-sama. I trust you have been informed about the recent happenings at the village, involving a group of rogue ninja that has infiltrated the village."

"Of course."

"New information has come to light and Hokage-sama decided to take immediate measures. Naruto Uzumaki might be in danger." The four elite ANBU exchanged concerned looks at this. "As such, we were quickly dispatched to fetch the boy and return him to the safety of the village."

Lion blinked twice, but thankfully, his surprise wasn't noticeable through his mask. "Wait. So you came from the village, under Hokage-sama's orders?"

"Yes."

"And you were sent to get Naruto from us?"

"Yes. Is there a problem?"

Lion sighed. "Of course there's a problem!" The other three elite ANBU tensed up. "You're interrupting our training! But I guess I can't interfere with Hokage-sama's orders…"

"I apologize, but surely you understand we are just following his command."

"Of course, of course…" Lion replied, rubbing his mask where his temples would be. "Hare, would you kindly fetch Naruto from the larger clearing? Tell him it's an urgent matter, if you will." Hare nodded and disappeared behind them. "Owl, Wolf, you are not needed here. Take the kids to the cabin and get the meal started, alright?" The women also nodded and led the kids away from the group of ANBU. After a few minutes of uncomfortable waiting, Lion again addressed the other men. "They should be almost here."

"**Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu! **(Fire Style: Giant Fireball Technique)**" **Sure enough, it was at that point Hare decided to show up, after shooting the enormous fireball at the visitors, who swiftly jumped sideways to avoid it.

"What kind of treachery is this?" One of them shouted.

"Drop the act! We know you're not real ANBU!" Lion yelled angrily. "Wolf!" At his call, Wolf and Owl appeared in a swirl of leaves next to him and Hare, ready for battle.

"**Kai! **(Release)" Wolf joined her hands in a simple seal and dispelled the genjutsu easily, revealing the six men's true appearances.

"I do not know how you found out, nor do I care." Their leader said, seemingly unfazed by the turn of events. "But give us Naruto Uzumaki, and we might just let you live."

* * *

**End of Chapter 11**

* * *

And so we finish yet another chapter. I received a lot of feedback, most of it positive, for Chapter 10 and would like to thank you all for you support and collaboration once more! Originally, I had planned to focus more on Naruto and Sarutobi in this chapter, and not so much on the genin, but it just came out, you know? And who am I to fight it? I promise, however, that there will be much more of Naruto's training in the next one. By the way, what did you think about the cliffhanger?

And now, a special response to Drinker, who, being an anonymous reviewer, I was unable to reply personally to:

**Hum… I'm not sure I follow. I never had any reviewer named reviewr73 that I can recall, nor have I given Naruto any "dumb bloodline" in this story, which I'm trying not to turn into a "wank cliché crap"… You might have reviewed the wrong fic…**

I felt the need to clarify that, since I got a little confused after his review. And… hum… I think that's all for these author's notes.

Bye!


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